The Shohei Ohtnai interpreter scandal isn't the sports betting reckoning you think it is

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to Morning Win! We appreciate you being with us today and giving us some time. Happy March Madness day, folks!

Let’s talk about the Shohei Ohtani interpreter scandal. This is a terrifying moment for the sports world.

To make a long story short, Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter and close friend, Ippei Mizuhara, owed roughly $4.5 million in gambling debts to an illegal bookmaker in California. Ohtani’s money reportedly paid off those debts. What’s unclear is whether it was authorized with Ohtani’s approval or if Mizuahra stole the money. From all accounts, it certainly seems like Ohtani knew about it. But now his lawyers are claiming he didn’t.

READ MORE: Everything we know so far about the Shohei Ohtani interpreter scandal

I’m not here to litigate all that, though. We’ll eventually get more facts on all of this. What’s been more interesting to me has been the reactions from the people observing this one.

Obviously, there was a big fear here that Shohei Ohtani was involved directly in an illegal sports betting operation. That’s not the case here. He’s apparently not facing any discipline to this point. This is all on his friend.

But there’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the possibility of us being trapped amid an Ohtani gambling scandal and what that could mean for the sports industry.

From the very moment sports betting was legalized and the sports media began working hand-in-hand with it, there have been fears about it leading to a massive insider gambling scandal. We thought this might’ve been the one and it would’ve been a heartbreaker. The quiet, two-way phenom we all know and love turning into the 2024 Pete Rose? Man. That would’ve stung.

But, thankfully, this doesn’t appear to be that.

The natural line for people to take here is that this is a result of the sports industry flying a little too close to the sun. If sports betting wasn’t so prominent these days, maybe Mizuhara wouldn’t have gotten involved in this. That might be true.

But Mizuhara did the thing that regulation is supposed to prevent. He went off the books to place his bets and got burned. He claimed he didn’t know, but it’s hard to believe someone who was $4.5 million in the hole had no idea what he was doing was illegal.

Regardless, what’s done is done. We’ll parse through the results of the investigation when we get there. But this didn’t happen because of the integration of sports betting and sports media — it happened because Mizuhara has a gambling problem.

By no means does that mean this marriage is perfect. It’s far from it. We might have a little too much dip on the chip here.

When Tyrese Haliburton tells us he feels like a “prop” to people on the court and J.B. Bickerstaff says he’s been threatened by a gambler who somehow got his contact information, we have problems. That’s not the first time we’ve heard things like that from players and coaches. It probably won’t be the last.

There’s also the fact that we actually have had gambling scandals already — they just haven’t involved prominent players to this point. Will we eventually run into that? I hope we won’t, but the answer is that it is probably inevitable.

Let’s just make sure we don’t treat this Shohei Ohtani investigation as if it’s that.

Caleb Williams, you are a Chicago Bear

It feels like we’ve known for a while that the Bears were taking Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick. But now, after hearing his quote on Keenan Allen at his pro day, it feels all but official.

Here’s Robert Zeglinski with more:

“On Wednesday, Williams performed for a gathered contingent of league evaluators at USC’s pro day. When talking about the Bears’ recent acquisition of six-time Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen, Williams gushed about how he and the playmaker have already connected before. Allen was, of course, a Southern California resident as a member of the Los Angeles Chargers, giving him the opportunity to occasionally hang with Williams as USC’s quarterback.

More importantly, Williams said that Allen is now “here for a fourth-round pick.”

Oh, wait. Allen is “here”? As in, with Williams … on the Bears? What an (entirely unsurprising) slip of the tongue.”

The table is set for Chicago. Justin Fields is gone, Keenan Allen is in, the structure of a solid team is there. Williams just has to cook.

Let’s see how this goes.

The Jazz just keep getting dunked on

I don’t know what it is about the Utah Jazz, but these dudes just keep getting dunked on, man. It’s hilarious.

First, obviously, Anthony Edwards completely decimated John Collins. Now, Chet Holmgren straight-up jammed on Taylor Hendricks in what ended up being one of the Thunder center’s best games of the season.

CHET HOLMGREN. NO WORDS. OH MY GOODNESS.@okcthunder pic.twitter.com/fI3lvOQIb1

— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) March 21, 2024

Holmgren had five dunks total in this game. That was the best one, but the others were pretty good, too.

Chet Holmgren's 5 dunks against the Jazz

1. Rebound and dunk over Collins
2. Poster on Hendricks
3. Transition dunk (THT hits him in the head)
4. Alley Oop from JDub
5. Transition 1 handed pic.twitter.com/TDU5Ki60ay

— Andrew Schlecht (@AndrewKSchlecht) March 21, 2024

Dunks aside, Chet finished with 35 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks and two steals. That’s extremely impressive — he’s just the 4th rookie to put up these numbers in 51 years.

Keep this up and that Rookie of the Year race might get pretty interesting in the end.

Quick hits: Dan Monson deserves better … Dawn Staley celebrates greatness … and more

— Dan Monson led Long Beach State to the NCAA tournament despite being fired. What a guy. Charles Curtis has more.

— Dawn Staley heaped a bunch of praise Caitlin Clark’s way for bringing a spotlight to women’s basketball. Meg Hall has more.

— Elite troll here from James Harden. This might be the funniest thing I’ve seen on a basketball court. Here’s Charles with more.

— Big big big shoutout to Grambling State. First tournament appearance? First tournament win. Cory Woodroof has more on their odds here.

— Here’s Christian D’Andrea on the NFL’s new proposed rule change that would change kickoffs drastically.

— And here are some NBA power rankings for you with Zion Williamson and the Pelicans flying high. 

That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading. Tap in again tomorrow for more! Til next time. Peace.

-Sykes