A couple weeks after the 2007 NBA lotto....

[LarBrd33]

If I traveled back in my time machine to last offseason... a few weeks after we got stuck with the #5 pick in the lotto...   and all hope was lost...  And went to Vegas and said...

"Hey... 2008 Finals will be Celtics over Lakers in 6 Games" ...

and put down a grand....

What kind of return am I looking at? 

Bearing in mind that at that point all signs pointed to malcontent drama queen Kobe Bryant getting shipped to Chicago since he was demanding a trade.

I just want to remind everyone how surreal last season was.  Did that really happen?

[Redz]

If I traveled back in my time machine to last offseason... a few weeks after we got stuck with the #5 pick in the lotto...   and all hope was lost...  And went to Vegas and said...

"Hey... 2008 Finals will be Celtics over Lakers in 6 Games" ...

and put down a grand....

About as much as you'd have if you put your money down on the Tampa Bay Rays to do what they're doing.

This is why we keep watching sports.  You never know.

[DimpusBurger]

I think there were some people who did -- either here or on realgm -- and I think the odds were on the order of 200-1.  So you would have done pretty well for yourself  

[LarBrd33]

I think there were some people who did -- either here or on realgm -- and I think the odds were on the order of 200-1.  So you would have done pretty well for yourself  

I have serious doubts that anyone put money on that.

We're talking about when the Celtics got stuck with the #5 pick.  They were the 2nd worst team in the league and it looked like their big addition was going to be Yi Jianlian.

Meanwhile the Lakers were an average organization who were about to lose their superstar, because he was a malcontent crybaby who wanted to go play in Chicago.

At that point picking the Celtics and Lakers in the finals would have been utterly insane.

[Greenwood]

I don't know if people put money on the lakers and celtics in 6 games, you would be hard pressed to find someone to take that bet.  But I did hear people making a good amount of money on 250 -1 odds on the C's winning it all last year. 

I was recently told a story by a guy that bet the Patriots to go 19-0 last year.  If he won it would have been over a 30 million dollar ticket.  The night before the casino who took his bet called up and offered him 5 million dollars to sell it back to them, he denied and ended up with nothing.  But people do tend to extend the truth at dinner parties so who knows if it was true or not. 

[Redz]

I think there were some people who did -- either here or on realgm -- and I think the odds were on the order of 200-1.  So you would have done pretty well for yourself  

I have serious doubts that anyone put money on that.

No serious bettor would have put a wager on the Celts at that point but you'll always have the Vegas vacationer who will put a small chunk of change down on their team to win the championship regardless of the outlook.

I had a few friends who made some money on the Pats in `01 on a similar bet.

Whether you could find a book to take a wager on the Celts not only winning a championship, but having it be over the Lakers, and having the series go exactly 6 games is unlikely though.

[CelticsWhat35]

I'm kicking myself for not putting money down after the Ray Allen trade went down.  I should've known that Danny would try whatever he could to got all in after that.  I wouldn't have expected to win, but at 200:1 or whatever it was at the time, it would've been worth a shot.

[CelticsWhat35]

I don't know if people put money on the lakers and celtics in 6 games, you would be hard pressed to find someone to take that bet.  But I did hear people making a good amount of money on 250 -1 odds on the C's winning it all last year. 

I was recently told a story by a guy that bet the Patriots to go 19-0 last year.  If he won it would have been over a 30 million dollar ticket.  The night before the casino who took his bet called up and offered him 5 million dollars to sell it back to them, he denied and ended up with nothing.  But people do tend to extend the truth at dinner parties so who knows if it was true or not. 

I heard a similar Pats story, although I think it was a $1,000 bet that would've come out to about $2.5 million or so.  So either it's a different person, or it's one of those stories that just gets bigger and bigger after each person tells it.   

[Redz]

I don't know if people put money on the lakers and celtics in 6 games, you would be hard pressed to find someone to take that bet.  But I did hear people making a good amount of money on 250 -1 odds on the C's winning it all last year. 

I was recently told a story by a guy that bet the Patriots to go 19-0 last year.  If he won it would have been over a 30 million dollar ticket.  The night before the casino who took his bet called up and offered him 5 million dollars to sell it back to them, he denied and ended up with nothing.  But people do tend to extend the truth at dinner parties so who knows if it was true or not. 

I heard a similar Pats story, although I think it was a $1,000 bet that would've come out to about $2.5 million or so.  So either it's a different person, or it's one of those stories that just gets bigger and bigger after each person tells it.   

20-20 hindsight of course, but come on...If they offered him $5 million as a buy out he's a fool for not taking it.  Dubious.

Never mind the $30 million he....ehhhhh never mind

[Jeff]

true story:

a friend of mine was in Vegas a week after Bledsoe went down with an injury (yes, THAT year) and called me up asking if I wanted to put $50 on the Pats just for fun - I said "sure" and completely forgot about it for the next several weeks

as they progressed in the playoffs, I called up my friend (who was moving apartments at the time) and asked where the ticket was

to this day he insists that he gave me the ticket and I'm sure I have no idea where it ever got to

I'm not sure what $50 would have netted me that year, but I'm sure it was a nice piece of coin

(and yes, I trust him implicitly that he didn't go cash it himself - we are both just forgetful people that lose stuff - such is life)

[Redz]

true story:

a friend of mine was in Vegas a week after Bledsoe went down with an injury (yes, THAT year) and called me up asking if I wanted to put $50 on the Pats just for fun - I said "sure" and completely forgot about it for the next several weeks

as they progressed in the playoffs, I called up my friend (who was moving apartments at the time) and asked where the ticket was

to this day he insists that he gave me the ticket and I'm sure I have no idea where it ever got to

I'm not sure what $50 would have netted me that year, but I'm sure it was a nice piece of coin

(and yes, I trust him implicitly that he didn't go cash it himself - we are both just forgetful people that lose stuff - such is life)

that hurts me, and I didn't lose anything

[Roy Hobbs]

Ah...  this brings me back to last year.

Through a few different contracts (some on this blog, some not) I knew the KG trade was going down (as almost definite) before a lot of other folks did.  One of my buddies pointed out that, as of that morning, the odds were something like 6-1 we didn't land KG, and 40-1 we didn't win the title.  He said I should place a bet online, if I was absolutely sure the trade was going down (which I was).

So, I attempted to, and found out that my work filters out gambling websites.  By the time I got home that evening, the betting lines related to the Celtics had been removed, leaving me out of luck.  The trade was announced something like 48 hours later.

I had planned on dropping $500 on the KG bet, and $200 on the championship.  That means I would have been over $10,000 richer.  It still bugs me...

[Fox40Kid]

I was in Vegas in Feb of 2001, a few weeks after the Superbowl.  Just for fun, I picked all the Boston sports teams to win their championships that year.  I ended up winning two bets, the Pats in the AFC championship (25-1) and the Pats in the Superbowl (50-1).

Not sure what the Celtics were at, but I would suspect between a 75-50 to 1 long shot.

Too bad I only put 5 bucks down on each of those Pats bets and not more.

[PaulPierce34G]

Its times like these that I wish a sports betting almanac (like the one from back to the future) existed...oh, and time travel of course, too.