Where the NBA meets the Trump administration

The sequel to Drexel Burnham Lambert’s “Predator’s Ball”

Second in a series. Read Part 1: The worst company in Wall Street History and the NBA.

BY HENRY ABBOTT

What if bad guys truly were like Bond villains? A cat, a yacht, a scheme, a giant pile of illicit cash. Or a mobster with cigars whose little nod ends a life.

They wouldn’t act alone, of course. Strings of judges, senators, executives, police captains, and the like would be bribed, coerced, or entrapped on their side. That’s how evil schemes work.

Politicians in movies like that are usually portrayed as phonies or puppets; saying something idealistic at a podium while running their fingers over the briefcase full of cash in the backroom.

I don’t know if the world really has Bond villains. But it for sure has crime, and it for sure has illicit dollars. The image of the Bond villain might be nutty, and the dollars might not be in a briefcase. But in the real word, dollars are moving, and some power brokers are in on it.

At one time, it perhaps seemed paranoid to worry. But things are a littl…