{"id":1651691,"date":"2025-12-16T21:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T02:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/?p=1651691"},"modified":"2025-12-16T21:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T02:08:17","slug":"silver-says-nba-is-taking-gambling-scandal-seriously-may-look-into-heat-relief-over-terry-rozier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/sports\/miami-heat\/silver-says-nba-is-taking-gambling-scandal-seriously-may-look-into-heat-relief-over-terry-rozier\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver says NBA is taking gambling scandal seriously, may look into Heat relief over Terry Rozier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 It is critical for the NBA to be perceived as having integrity, Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday, adding that the gambling scandals that led to the arrests<\/a> of Miami guard Terry Rozier, Portland coach Chauncey Billups and others are being taken with the utmost seriousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver’s comments in a news conference shortly before the start of the NBA Cup final were his first since Rozier, Billups and others were arrested in October. He spoke in Las Vegas, a gambling mecca that the league has used for major events like the Cup final and Summer League for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the fans care a lot,” Silver said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to make judgments, either anecdotally over what some fans are saying or what\u2019s even on social media. Fans definitely care. And I mean it when I say, if this game isn\u2019t viewed as being honest and the competition being on the level and at the highest integrity, over time we will lose our fan base. I have no doubt about that. And so, I take it incredibly seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NBA is not sure how long the investigations and legal processes surrounding gambling charges faced by Rozier, Billups \u2014 a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee \u2014 and others will take to be completed, Silver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the league will look into the possibility of giving Miami some sort of \u201csatisfactory relief\u201d because Rozier currently can\u2019t play, Silver added, though he stopped short of saying such a move would be possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an unprecedented situation,\u201d Silver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a multi-layered issue for the league and the Heat, given that Rozier\u2019s $26.6 million salary takes up about 17% of the team\u2019s cap space \u2014 and that the team still owes Charlotte a first-round pick in either 2027 or 2028 to satisfy the terms of the trade that brought Rozier to Miami. It\u2019s unclear who was aware that Rozier was under federal investigation when the Heat made the trade with the Hornets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rozier pleaded not guilty\u00a0earlier this month to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges stemming from accusations that he\u00a0helped some friends win bets\u00a0that revolved around his statistical performance in a game played in March 2023, when he was with Charlotte. Rozier is free on $3 million bond and isn\u2019t expected back in court until March, and he remains on unpaid leave from the Heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors say Rozier informed the bettors that he intended to leave the game against the\u00a0New Orleans Pelicans\u00a0early with a supposed injury, allowing gamblers to place wagers earning them tens of thousands of dollars. Rozier played the first nine minutes and 36 seconds of the game before leaving, citing a foot issue. He did not play again that season and was subsequently traded to the Heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rozier isn\u2019t receiving his pay, but his salary is still on the Heat\u2019s books and is being sent to an interest-bearing account pending resolution of his case or some other agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to work something through, work this out with them,\u201d Silver said. \u201cBut there\u2019s no obvious solution here. I would just say that there\u2019s no doubt at the moment they have a player that can\u2019t perform services for them. … Obviously, he hasn\u2019t been convicted of anything yet either \u2014 but this is an unfortunate circumstance. Sometimes there\u2019s these unique events and maybe sometimes they require a unique solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billups also pleaded not guilty last month to charges related to a\u00a0separate scheme\u00a0to fix high-stakes, Mafia-backed poker games. Rozier, Billups and former NBA guard Damon Jones were among more than 30 people \u2014 including several Mafia figures \u2014 arrested in October as part of a sprawling\u00a0federal takedown\u00a0of illegal gambling operations linked to pro sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The league requires annual training for players, coaches and staff about what’s allowed and what isn’t allowed regarding gambling, which is now legal in most states. Silver famously championed legalization of sports betting in\u00a0an op-ed he wrote for The New York Times in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situations with Rozier and Billups have led to a quest for even heightened awareness, Silver said. The league is also looking at how best to ensure prop bets based solely on a player’s statistical performance \u2014 like the ones made on Rozier\u2019s March 2023 game \u2014 can be executed fairly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been redoubling our efforts at the league office, working with our teams, looking at every aspect of our rules around sports betting,\u201d Silver said. \u201cAre there better ways to educate the participants? Are there changes we should make in how injuries are reported? … We’re in the process as I said right now and working with our teams thinking about anything else we can be doing, if there\u2019s any aspect of our system that needs to be shored up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 It is critical for the NBA to be perceived as having integrity, Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday, adding that the gamblingRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188962055,"featured_media":1634843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-12-17T02:08:16Z","apple_news_api_id":"5761c691-4702-4cf1-a5c9-b3e53acf0fe2","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-12-17T02:08:16Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AV2HGkUcCTPGlybPlOs8P4g","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_speedyseo_primary_category":"","_sunbeam_story_id":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1411],"tags":[1670],"coauthors":[1600],"class_list":["post-1651691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miami-heat","tag-nba","sunbeam-copyright-the-associated-press"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/102325-Fans-in-Miami-react-to-Terry-Roziers-arrest-in-connection-to-FBI-sports-gambling-investigation.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188962055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651692,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651691\/revisions\/1651692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1634843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651691"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1651691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}