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Brian Windhorst and a team of ESPN’s Insiders sort out life and the news from in and around the NBA world.
One of the most famous hands in televised poker history took place in 2007 on a show called “High Stakes Poker,” which featured high-end cash games.
In the heat of play, 2006 World Series of Poker champion Jamie Gold called a bet by dropping $100,000 in bundles of $100 bills onto the table even though his opponent, old school pro Sam Farha, openly told him he was holding pocket aces and therefore was way ahead.
“Why?” the incredulous Farha, who often played with an unlit cigarette in his mouth, groaned at the call.
“I have to, I’m sorry,” Gold snapped back.
Gold was “pot committed.” He had so much invested he couldn’t allow himself to give up despite facing poor odds. The $400,000 pot ended up with Farha, aces beating kings.
The LA Clippers are owned by a poker player, Steve Ballmer. He and Bill Gates used to have late-night card sessions in their Harvard dorm. Not just because they were peeling what became Microsoft startup money from trust fund kids, but because they loved the strategy, acquiring and applying information.
Ballmer’s franchise is pot committed. The Clippers feel it every day and every time they turn in an injury report with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on it.
When LA played Sunday, a 114-100 win against the Indiana Pacers, Leonard was inactive for the 106th time in the last 111 Clippers games. No. 107 will be Tuesday night. George didn’t play Sunday and will miss at least the next two games, making him inactive for 57 of 80 Clippers games.
This is maddening to many of the franchise’s fans. It’s fodder for media members who want to re-litigate the 2019 trade that sent what now looks like a potential superstar in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Oklahoma City Thunder plus a treasure trove of draft picks and pick swaps.
It even seems to sometimes press coach Ty Lue to the edge, too.
“That was too nasty,” Lue said last week when he looked back on the…
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