NBA Stars Can't Fudge How Tall They Are in Era of Sports Betting

(Bloomberg) -- The NBA is done telling tall tales.

The league is exploring ways to ensure that all of its players are as tall -- or as short -- as they claim to be, according to Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, who said the spread of legal sports betting requires that game and player data be accurate.

The NBA has historically relied on teams to measure players, who occasionally fudge the numbers for a variety of reasons. The teams didn’t mind looking the other way if players added, or subtracted, a few inches from their actual height -- a practice that often dated back to decisions made in high school or college.

But with legalized sports betting expanding, the major sports leagues are touting the value of fast, accurate data, and marketing it to betting houses. Tatum said fans and business partners would rightly question the veracity of that information if the league couldn’t pinpoint something as easily measured as height.

“In this new world that we’re living in, the integrity of that information is critical,” Tatum said on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. “That’s knowable information, and it’s something that we are looking at. The standards now, in a legalized sports betting world, are going to be much, much higher than they ever have been.”

Most height exaggerations occur long before a player reaches the NBA. A few extra inches, the players figure, might make them more attractive to college coaches and scouts who favor taller over smaller. Some players, though, want to be seen as shorter. A 7-footer, for instance, might list himself at 6 feet, 11 inches to avoid pressure to always play the low post. Taller or shorter, up or down, Tatum said the NBA needs to get it right.

“We have to have a standard measurement, where everybody stands there without shoes, back straight,” he said.

Tatum also said the NBA is examining how teams report player injuries, and which ones would be material to those wagering on games.

“You have to balance things like player privacy,” he said. “It’s hard. These are some complicated issues.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net;Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum

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