NBA commissioner Adam Silver was at Madison Square Garden on Friday night for the New York Knicks’ matchup with the Boston Celtics, and during the second quarter he appeared on the Amazon broadcast to make his first public comments about the gambling scandal that has rocked the league.
“My initial reaction was I was deeply disturbed,” Silver said. “There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition. I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting.”
On Thursday, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player and coach Damon Jones were arrested by the FBI as part of a wide-ranging investigation into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games.
NBA gambling scandal, explained: What to know as Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier get arrested, suspended
Sam Quinn
The Department of Justice filed two separate indictments, one relating to illegal sports betting and one relating to rigged poker games. Rozier was only named in the betting indictment, while Jones was named in both. Billups was only directly named in the poker indictment, but a person matching his description was mentioned in the betting indictment.
The illegal sports betting allegations are more concerning for the NBA, because they put the integrity of the sport in question. According to the DOJ, Rozier and his co-defendants “participated in a scheme to defraud the Betting Companies by providing, obtaining and using non-public information relating to NBA games to place and cause others to place fraudulent sports wagers for profit, and to launder the proceeds thereof.”
One of the most damning allegations centered on Rozier’s actions during a March 2023 game when he was still playing for the Charlotte Hornets. Rozier is said to have told people close to him that he was planning to leave the game early, and members of the betting ring then placed multiple prop bets totaling more than $200,000 on his unders. Rozier ended up playing just nine minutes and 34 seconds, and his unders cashed.
The NBA was alerted to unusual activity relating to prop bets on Rozier at the time of the game in question. The league conducted its own investigation, but found no violation of NBA rules. When news broke in January that Rozier was under federal investigation, the league said it would cooperate with law enforcement.
On Friday, Silver gave an extended explanation for why Rozier had previously been cleared by the league:
“Because bets were placed through legal betting companies, they picked up abberational behavior around a particular game in March of ’23. So that was brought to our attention by the regulators and the betting company. We then looked into that situation, and we were very transparent about it. While there was that abberational betting, we frankly couldn’t find anything.
“Terry, at the time, cooperated and gave the league office his phone. He sat down for an interview. We ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence — despite that abberational behavior — to move forward. We then worked directly with law enforcement — as they said at the press conference, the league has been cooperating. That was obviously over two years ago. The federal government has subpoena power, can threaten to put people in jail, can do all kinds of things that the league office can’t do. We’ve been working with them since then.”
Billups and Rozier have both been placed on indefinite leave. Tiago Splitter has been named the interim coach of the Trail Blazers in Billups’ place.