We have long been of the view that the NBA is the least competitive of the major North American sports. Things have gotten much worse, as the odds against the NBA's worst teams have moved toward the impossible range. You can get the Toronto Raptors at odds of 250-1 to win the league championship. That is huge. With the inmates clearly running the asylum, we are likely to continue to see the league's best players gravitate to a handful of attractive franchises, while many of the small market teams really do become the Washington Generals.

Who cares? We all know that American consumers are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. After all, they will spend thousands to watch the Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves play basketball. And the Canadians aren't much better. Folks actually pony up hard earned cash to watch those Raptors battle it out for 29th place.

A handful of teams have a legitimate shot at beating the Miami Heat. But the other 25 or so are on a par with Barnum and Bailey. A circus act, at best. How about them Cleveland Cavaliers? Give me 4 season tickets! It's a good thing for the NBA that Americans are so bored with their lives that they will spend their money to watch totally hopeless franchises go through the motions. We can probably name 12 of the 16 playoff teams right now ... and the other four have no shot at getting past the second round. The regular season is all about finding those last four playoff teams and injuries often play a big role in that process. Then, they are quickly eliminated anyway. Enjoy the new season, suckers!

We have long enjoyed making sports bets at CentSports. Today (8/31/11) comes the sad news that CentSports has been absorbed into another free sports betting site. That other site has a series of rules that encourage you to spend 33 cents a day to get a reasonable shot at winning. We do not consider it a "free" site in the real sense of the word. Yes, we belong there, but the twisted rules seem designed to make a profit and to never give a player an even break ... Just our opinion. For awhile, we were limited to making a $3 profit on any play with a $200 minimum cash out. They seem to have eased up a tiny bit on those ridiculous restrictions, but it's still very difficult to get anywhere.

But hey, it's better than nothing!