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‘Fixing’ scandal hits NBA: What cops cited as example from top American basketball league
New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch cited an example of a March 23, 2023, game in which Rozier was then playing for another team, the Charlotte Hornets
One of the NBA stars arrested in the FBI's probe into illegal betting, Miami Heat player Terry Rozier, is accused of using insider information of the top American league held by the National Basketball Association (NBA), to aid illegal earnings via betting.
New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch cited an example of a March 23, 2023, game in which Rozier was then playing for another team, the Charlotte Hornets.
How Terry Rozier ‘fixed’ bets
Fake injury: Terry Rozier allegedly let his co-conspirators know that he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury.
Big bets placed: "Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers" on his expected performance in the game, she said.
It all paid out: "Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit."
Until, the racket was busted and arrests were made.
As for allegations of rigged poker games against another former player and now coach, Chauncey Billups of the Portland Trail Blazers, the fraudsters used “custom shuffling machines that could read cards, barcoded decks and hidden cameras built into tables and light fixtures”.
"Victims believed that they were sitting at a fair table," an official told news agency AFP. "Instead, they were cheated out of millions."
NBA player banned for life
The US attorney said the indictment in the sports gambling case was linked to the arrest in 2024 of a former NBA player, Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors, who was banned from the league for life for his role in a betting scandal.
Billups retired from the NBA as a player in 2014 and has been the head coach of the Trail Blazers since 2021. He was on the bench for the team's first game of the season on Wednesday, a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rozier, 31, is suffering from a hamstring injury and did not play in the Heat's opening game of the NBA season on Wednesday. He was the 16th overall pick by the Boston Celtics in the 2015 draft. He has averaged 13.9 points per game playing for three teams over his 11-year NBA career.
What player's lawyer said
Rozier's lawyer, James Trusty, said in a statement that prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing”.
"Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case," Trusty said. "Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight."
NBA players are forbidden from wagering on NBA games under league rules.
The arrests, particularly of Billups regarding poker fixing, comes three months after that of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, who was arrested in July on charges of running illegal high-stakes poker games at his Los Angeles mansion.
