Guys,
First let me address the two specific situations mentioned in this thread.
2/3/2003 - Jermaine O’Neal
On February 2nd at 7:40 AM, we sent out Jermaine O’Neal as doubtful for the Indiana/Laker game, and he did not play.
On February 3rd we sent out Jermaine O’Neal as questionable. We quoted the Indianapolis newspapers as saying “He’s officially a game-time decision tonight in New York, but is more likely to play on Friday at Toronto.” We monitored his status throughout the day. When the pre-game show came on TV, O’Neal was dressed and shooting some warm-up shots. The announcers said, “O’Neal is shooting around to see if he can tolerate that sore neck for tonight’s game, but we have no word on his availability.” At this time the line moved 1/2 point. We continued to stay in contact with our sources and at 4:25 PM we got the official word that he was going to start. We sent a message out with this information before it was announced on TV or radio. At that time the line moved 1 1/2 – 2 points.
2/4/2003 - Tracy McGrady
On February 4th at 4:07 PM we sent out Tracy McGrady as a late scratch. At 3:30 PM we confirmed the lineups for the Orlando/Toronto game and they listed McGrady as a starter. At 4:00 PM both wire services sent out the starting lineups listing McGrady as a starter. At 4:07 one wire service sent out a revised lineup without McGrady. We immediately confirmed it and sent out the message. At that time the line moved 2-3 points.
After the game started we found an AP article that said, “He dressed for the game, but announced moments before the tip-off that he wouldn't play.”
We work extremely hard and dedicate a tremendous amount of resources to provide our customers with the fastest and most accurate information. Unfortunately there will be times when we do not get the information first. When this does happen, we analyze the situation to see if we could have done something different. In the situations listed above, I do not believe we could have.
On the accusations of leaking or misusing information, I can assure you that we work equally as hard in protecting the information as we do in researching it. We do not allow cell phones, pagers or any kind of instant messenger in our office. We also monitor incoming and outgoing phone calls on a regular basis. As many of our customers have seen, our office is very open and it would be difficult for anybody to be leak information undetected.
As our customers already know, we break the information before the games are hit over 95% of the time. On 2/2/03 we sent out that Shaq had been suspended before the game ever moved. On 2/4/03, the day of McGrady message, we were first with Arenas, Wade and Stoudemire.
For those of you that made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this post. As always, if any of our customers have any questions or concerns about our service, please feel free to call me at 1-800-Don-Best, or email me at
rick@donbest.com.
