This October, the NBA was rocked by a betting scandal that has touched coaches, players, and even the league's biggest star. Half a dozen people, including one member of the Miami Heat, are now facing federal criminal charges.
But what exactly is the scandal? What are the defendants in the case accused of doing? How does the case connect to a similar-seeming scandal involving Jontay Porter? Or to a case involving the mob and some fixed poker games? And where do things stand, especially after a somewhat contentious status conference in the case on Monday, December 8?
We've got you covered. Here's what you need to know about the NBA, inside information, and gambling.
What is this case about?
In the broadest possible strokes, people are accused of receiving non-public information about the NBA, usually having to do with lineup decisions or medical information that hadn't yet been released. They then would either place bets using that information, or sell the information to people who would use it to place bets. In many cases, they'd know a top player would be out of the game, so they'd either bet on the player to underperform or on their team to lose.
In the case of Terry Rozier, things went one step further. He's accused of pulling himself out of a game early, after telling a friend in advance he was going to do just that.
This is exactly the type of scheme that Jontay Porter, formerly of the Toronto Raptors, admitted to taking part in when he pleaded guilty last year in the federal case against him. But more about that later.
Who is involved?
Six people are charged in the case.
- Terry Rozier: Miami Heat guard. He is still on the team's roster, though his lawyer confirmed on Monday that he is not being paid, and will shortly go into arbitration with the NBA. Rozier is accused of telling his friend De'Niro Laster that he was going to pull himself out of a March 23, 2023 game early, claiming injury. Laster then allegedly sold the information for $100,000. The people who bought the info then supposedly bet on Rozier under-performing in the game. Rozier did indeed exit that game about nine-and-a-half minutes in.
- De'Niro Laster: Rozier's longtime friend is accused of selling the information about his pal's planned early exit. But the indictment in the case also alleges that this was a regular thing for Laster: that he had frequently shared "non-public information relating to Rozier's health status." Five days after the March 23 game, Laster is accused of traveling to Philadelphia (a trip Rozier allegedly arranged and paid for) to collect money from the person he's accused of selling the information to.
- Eric Earnest: Earnest is accused of getting inside information from a so-far-unnamed co-conspirator that the Trail Blazers planned to have several of their top players sit out a late-season game. Earnest is accused of sharing that knowledge with another co-defendant, Marves Fairley, in exchange for an agreement to split the profits they'd make betting against Portland. Earnest is additionally accused of a similar scheme involving a Jan. 2024 game between the L.A. Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. That incident also involves Damon Jones, and we'll get into details about it below.
- Damon Jones: Jones is a former NBA journeyman and was part of the coaching staff of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was close enough with LeBron James, who he was teammates with on the Cavs for several years, that he even functioned as a sort of unofficial assistant coach to the Lakers for the 2022-23 season, reportedly because of his relationship with the superstar.
Jones is accused of using his relationships with James, the Lakers as a whole, and others to obtain inside information on "multiple occasions," and then selling that information to gamblers. At least one of these incidents allegedly involved LeBron: a Feb. 9, 2023 Lakers game against the Bucks. James, referred to as "Player 3" in the indictment, had not yet been added to the league's injury report when Jones is accused of texting a co-conspirator: ""Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [Player 3] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat to [sic] now!!!"
Jones is accused of pulling a similar scheme, this time seemingly involving Anthony Davis, for a Jan. 15, 2024 Lakers/OKC game. Neither Davis nor James are accused of being aware of the scheme, nor of any other wrongdoing. - Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen, much like Earnest, are accused of buying inside information and placing bets.
How serious are the charges?
All six men are charged with one count of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Will other people be caught up in this?
While it's impossible to answer this for certain, it's at least possible that other people could be added to the case. The indictment currently lists nine separate unnamed co-conspirators.
Why didn't the NBA catch this?
As it turns out, the NBA was aware of at least some of these instances. The league admitted that they'd been made aware of "unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozier's performance" in one of the games at issue. However, an NBA spokesman continued, "The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rules."
What does Jontay Porter have to do with all this?
Jontay Porter was accused by the feds of behavior that by now seems familiar: pulling himself out of two games early so that people — including a man named Long Phi Pham — could place bets using that information.
Porter and Pham both pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in 2024. Porter's sentencing in that case has been continually pushed back. In fact, on Monday (Dec. 8) it was adjourned yet again just two days before it was scheduled to occur, this time without a replacement date being set. Pham's sentencing is currently scheduled for December 16, but none of the relevant paperwork has yet been filed with the court, so a delay seems likely.
The current case involving Rozier, Jones, and the rest has a strong connection to Porter and Pham. While neither man is charged, both are mentioned in the feds' press release announcing the case, with the games they admit to betting on appearing right alongside the rest of the games in a list of "some of the co-conspirators’ activities alleged in the indictment."
Pham is accused of giving information about Porter to a familiar name, Shane Hennen, who then passed it on to another familiar name, Marves Fairley.
While Porter and Pham's behavior is part of the case, they are not charged in it, presumably since they've already pleaded guilty.
Three other men, Ammar Awawdeh, Timothy McCormack and Mahmud Mollah, were alleged to be a part of Porter and Pham's conspiracy. Mollah and McCormack have pleaded guilty. The case against Awawdeh is still listed as open, according to court records, though it has slowed to a crawl. He is currently out on a $2 million bond in a different gambling case — see below for that.
Where are the defendants now?
All six of the men are free pending trial, though with (sometimes wildly) different bail packages. Rozier is out on a $3 million bond secured by his home in Florida. Jones, who has an appointed rather than a hired attorney, was freed on a $200,000 bond backed by his mother and stepfather's house. Fairey was freed on a $200,000 bond. Hennen's was $250,000, Earnest's was $500,000, and Laster's was $50,000, secured by his mother and his cousin.
Where does the case stand?
As mentioned, Monday, December 8, was a big day. Rozier appeared in court for the first time, and all the defendants were in the courtroom at the same time for a status conference.
Rozier's attorney, James Trusty, explained that his client had been suffering since news of an investigation into his behavior first became public in January of this year. The Miami Heat star is not currently being paid and is set to go into arbitration with the NBA.
Trusty also said that he was preparing to file a motion to get the charges against his client dismissed — a motion that Laster's lawyer preliminarily expressed interest in joining.
Trusty seemed to indicate that his motion would be based around a 2023 Supreme Court case, Ciminelli vs. United States, et. al. That decision narrowed the scope of wire fraud statutes in federal cases. The argument would be strictly about the law, and would not deal with the facts of the case at all.
Also on Monday, prosecutors revealed that they have a ton — or more precisely, around 55 GB — of evidence ready to share. Among the thousand-plus documents are bank, phone, and betting records, they said. They also explained that they may be seeking a Curcio hearing for one of the defendants, which is a hearing involving a potential conflict of interest for one of the defense attorneys. No details were revealed.
No trial date has been set. The next status conference is on Mar. 3.
What does all this have to do with the mob?
On the same day that the NBA gambling charges were announced, the feds announced a separate indictment, also involving gambling. The case is charged in the same district as the one involving Rozier and co., and even involves some of the same people.
That case charges 31 people with participating in a scheme to rig illegal poker games. Most of the people arrested are alleged to be members of different Mafia families, who allegedly stopped fighting long enough to coordinate ways to cheat people who were participating in high stakes illegal poker games they were running. Then they'd allegedly threaten and intimidate people who didn't pay up.
How does this connect to the NBA case we're dealing with? Well, the poker games would allegedly use former pro athletes as "face cards" — well-known figures used to draw people into the games. One of them, allegedly, was Damon Jones.
There's other overlap as well. Eric Earnest is accused of being part of the scheme. The indictment even provides a specific example: it accuses him of participating in a series of poker games in Nevada where a rigged shuffling machine was used to rob players of at least $50,000.
Shane Hennen is accused more generally of organizing rigged games, providing cheating technology for them, and being a member of the cheating teams.
So far, those three men — Jones, Earnest, and Hennen — are the only overlap between the two cases.
Sort of.
Ammar Awawdeh, who is connected to the Jontay Porter situation, is also charged in the mob gambling case. He is accused of being an "organizer" of one of the rigged games. He is currently free, as mentioned, on a $2 million bond.