Opinion: kudos to the NBA

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Miami and Las Vegas, the nation’s ultimate playgrounds, are putting on competing sports events/parties in coming weeks, with the Super Bowl in Miami this Sunday and the NBA All-Star game coming to Las Vegas later in the month.

The All-Star game, the first time it’s held in a city without an NBA franchise, is a huge get for Sin City. With its convention business, Vegas has become the preeminent showcase for almost any industry you can think of, but the sports world has been leery of the town because leagues don’t want to acknowledge that some people actually bet -- they’d be shocked, shocked, you understand -- on the games.

Credit the NBA for getting over this excessive, and somewhat hypocritical (given that gamblers fuel some of the sports’ popularity), prudishness. I am not saying the leagues need to embrace gambling. But Las Vegas is a major city in its own right, a thriving entertainment venue which needn’t be shunned on moral grounds.

That said, those NBA players better behave while they are in town!