An NBA season to top last year's? Unlikely, if you believe the odds

The Cavaliers and the Lakers were the class of the NBA during the 2008-09 regular season, with Cleveland winning 66 of its 82 games and L.A. winning 65.

This week, all Lucky’s sports books in Nevada posted a selection of proposition wagers linked to the forthcoming NBA season, scheduled to begin Oct. 27.

The featured prop asks whether any team in the NBA will win 67 games or more during the 2009-10 regular season.

Full of quirks, Stupak refused to go out calling

The Bob Stupak I’ll remember liked to talk about sports betting and gambling exploits.

He had a unique way of screening his conversations to avoid more tedious topics, however.

I often thought of Stupak as “Ten Sixty-seven” because he would answer one of his business lines with the last four digits of the phone number.

Oddsmakers unmoved by the Maple Leafs' move for more scoring

When Toronto acquired Phil Kessel, one of the NHL’s most promising young scorers, in a big trade with Boston last week, it was a signal that Maple Leafs management is serious about making a playoff run this season.

The Leafs, who gave up a series of draft picks in the long-rumored deal, were an also-ran in the league’s Eastern Conference a year ago, finishing 12th among 15 teams, with 81 points.

Yet when the Las Vegas Hilton sports book released its betting lines on 2009-10 NHL regular-season team points this week, the numbers indicated oddsmakers aren’t so bullish on the Leafs.

Bet on it: Manny Pacquiao will be next to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr.

With his engaging smile and handsome face, Oscar De La Hoya exudes the aura of a gifted salesman, a top producer.

It has served him well as he has built his company, Golden Boy Promotions, into a major force in the boxing business since its inception eight years ago.

This was a tough sell, though.

De La Hoya was trying to convince an assemblage of irascible boxing types late Saturday night at the MGM Grand that Shane Mosley, rather than Manny Pacquiao, would make a better opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Mayweather’s next fight.

Marquez camp wants Mayweather in top form

Boxing insiders who try to make a case for an upset victory by Juan Manuel Marquez in Saturday night’s showdown against Floyd Mayweather Jr. invariably point to Mayweather’s absence from the ring of nearly two years.

Mayweather might have to shake off some rust, particularly during the early rounds, as he readjusts to world-class boxing competition. Maybe Mayweather aged as a fighter during his temporary retirement and his stamina will fade late in the scheduled 12-rounder. Or maybe Mayweather’s timing, a crucial component of his game plan, will be off.

Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain, Marquez’s trainer, hopes none of those contingencies comes to pass.

Mayweather’s hiatus from ring has a couple of historical parallels

When comparisons are drawn between Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s hiatus from boxing and other memorable comebacks in the sport, names such as Muhammad Ali and George Foreman usually come up right away.

Ali missed three and a half years of the prime of his career when he refused to be inducted into the military in 1967.

Foreman left the ring for 10 years after losing to Jimmy Young in 1977, only to return and eventually regain the heavyweight title.

Father is back in Mayweather Jr.'s corner

Floyd Mayweather Sr. looked and sounded tired and acknowledged he felt a bit rundown.

It was late on the night that Mayweather’s fighter, Ricky Hatton, had scored an 11th-round technical knockout of Paulie Malignaggi in November at the MGM Grand.

Even fresh off the victory, Mayweather was not in a celebratory mood. Instead, he was detailing his plan to urge Hatton to kick his long-cherished habit of drinking between fights — perhaps foreshadowing the rocky training camp that preceded Hatton’s next fight, which culminated in a second-round knockout at the hands of Manny Pacquiao.

Bears a long shot at any odds

Already a trendy team among NFL prognosticators, the Chicago Bears officially became a chic pick when Sports Illustrated predicted they would reach the Super Bowl.

Count Las Vegas sports handicapper Joe D’Amico among those not buying into the hype.

Even with the acquisition of quarterback Jay Cutler in a big trade with Denver, the Bears enter Week 1 of the regular season as the most overrated team in professional football, according to D’Amico.

Apt picks for a sports betting hall of fame

In a follow-up, Roxy Roxborough suggested adding Vic Salerno's name to those listed here.

No one has bothered to establish a hall of fame for sports bettors.

Howard Schwartz wants to correct that oversight.

Schwartz, proprietor of the Gambler’s Book Shop in Las Vegas, is not so presumptuous that he would call himself the driving force behind the idea. Instead, he prefers the term “curious initiator.”

Roger Mayweather not shy about touting his nephew as world's best boxer

Floyd Mayweather Jr., the guest of honor, arrived fashionably late for a barbecue lunch outside his Chinatown boxing gym Wednesday.

His uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, got there in plenty of time to dig into a burger and hold court on his favorite topic: boxing and its finer points.

Taking on all comers, Roger Mayweather addressed topics ranging from the most talented all-around boxers past and present to the birthplaces of prominent heavyweights of the 1950s.