WE RECENTLY received a press release from the NBA entitled, “Viva NBA!” a sly reference to “Viva Las Vegas.” The release was designed to promote the fact that Las Vegas “has expanded its relationship with the NBA” to include hosting next year’s All-Star Game.

The NBA doesn’t have enough issues – before the first round of the playoffs concluded, a mere four players were suspended for in-game misconduct – and now it’s going to throw a party in a town that has smugly adopted the phrase, “What happens here, stays here.”

Funny thing about that sales phrase is that in those image TV ads for Vegas, “What happens here, stays here” follows several vignettes that clearly imply that men and women have traveled to Vegas to have sex outside of their existing steady relationships, including marriage.

That these naughty ads make it clear that Las Vegas is eager to serve as both the site and financial beneficiary of your, ahem, pleasure, additionally makes it clear that Vegas is pleased to serve as a pimp.

As if the NBA doesn’t have enough trouble, now it’s scheduling appointments with it.

In the early 1990s, when David Stern testified in Washington and before the New Jersey State Assembly, he soulfully claimed that he wanted to keep the NBA as far as possible from all forms of gambling. He testified that kids should in no way equate the NBA with gambling.

But in recent years, Stern’s NBA has sold its league and team logos to state lotteries, allowed a Connecticut resort/casino to be home to a WNBA team, has added fantasy leagues on its Web site, has allowed gambling signage to decorate its arenas.

And now the NBA and Las Vegas are dating.

“Times,” Stern has explained, “have changed.”

They have? Does that mean that it’s now less important to discourage a kid toward gambling? Or, by “Times have changed,” does Stern mean that the NBA has changed, that it used to turn down opportunities to do anything for a buck?

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Speaking of gambling, we’ve and a read a lot about problem gambling, but nothing has come close to “Six to Five Against – A Gambler’s Odyssey,” written by Burt Dragin, a gambling scholar and a second-generation problem gambler.

Published last year in paperback by RDR Books (RDRBooks.com, $18), “Six to Five Against” is a wonderfully written one-stop shop about the human condition’s relationship to a turn of a card.

Dragin, 63 and currently a West Coast journalism professor, adroitly moves here and there – from anecdotal experiences growing up the son of a half-a-wise-guy compulsive gambler, to clinical and historical research on the issue – at all times keeping it plain, as in just plain interesting.

Odd, Dragin writes, that while gambling is widely considered a risky endeavor, its results are highly predictable.

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I badly erred in this space last Sunday when I wrote that ESPN’s “Mike & Mike Show” (Greenberg and Golic) doesn’t nominate ESPNers for its weekly “Just Shut Up” Award. In fact, ESPNers have been nominated and selected.

I’m not sure if a print guy is eligible to win a “Just Shut Up,” but in this case I deserve consideration for an “Alt + Ctrl + Delete” Award.

Incidentally, and this has nothing to do with Greenberg and Golic, ESPN expects retractions when it feels that it has been wronged in print. ESPN should feel that way. And any journalist worth his or her byline knows that because mistakes will happen, retractions must follow.

But when does ESPN issue retractions? When does ESPN make good on the erroneous things it has reported on national TV and over many years?

We’ve heard coaches and game officials denigrated by ESPNers who clearly have no idea what they’re talking about, yet can’t remember a single apology. We’ve watched ESPN take credit for the work of newspersons outside of ESPN, yet can’t recall even one retraction. We’ve heard dead-wrong reports issued on ESPN, yet no correction.

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Don Wiederecht, a reader from St. Petersburg, Fla., notes that while the Devil Rays receive a “luxury tax” subsidy from teams such as the Yanks and Red Sox, they also charge extra for tickets when such teams are in town. In other words, the Devil Rays exact a luxury tax from patrons, as well.

But fret not, Don, Bud Selig will never stand for such a thing; he’ll get on it right away!