The Heat have fired a team executive who is under an FBI investigation into a suspected money-laundering scheme, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. Jeffrey R. David was hired in July as chief revenue officer for The Heat Group after a similar role with the Kings. He had been placed on administrative leave before Miami decided to let him go. David is suspected of diverting $13.4MM in funds from two of the Sacramento franchise’s top sponsors and using it to purchase beachfront property in Southern California.
In other news from around the Southeast Division:
- The lack of talent on the Heat roster makes it unlikely that Erik Spoelstra will be on the hot seat during the upcoming season, Winderman opines in his latest mailbag post. Miami is not expected to contend in the Eastern Conference and Spoelstra may have to do his best coaching job just to get the Heat into the upper half of the playoff race, Winderman adds.
- Undrafted small forward Kaiser Gates was among the players who worked out for the Hawks on Wednesday, according to Amico Hoops. The 6’8” Gates started 18 games for Xavier last season and averaged 7.2 PPG and 4.6 RPG. He played for the Bulls in the Las Vegas summer league. Atlanta subsequently firmed up its 20-man training camp roster, so it would have to shed someone if it wanted to add Gates.
- Wizards forward Otto Porter Jr. could get lost in the offensive shuffle with the addition of Dwight Howard and a healthier John Wall, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington speculates. The team has urged Porter the past two years to shoot more often, attack the basket with greater zeal and become a more vocal presence, Hughes continues. That becomes more complicated with Wall, Bradley Beal and Howard carrying more extensive resumes on the starting unit, Hughes adds.
Kevin Garnett is suiing his accounting firm because they allowed a guy to defraud him out of $77MM. This same guy is already in jail for defrauding Tim Duncan.
If Spo can set Whiteside’s work ethic and attitude right, Heat would improve a ton. Whiteside shouldn’t be far away from Gobert when he tries hard.
Maybe Miami should set up their offence around Whiteside & make him the man, then he would be more motivated when it comes to defence. Really the situation with Whiteside is a mismanagement from the team.
OPJ had his chance, this year he will be option #4, so the question is why they pay him so much to be such a low option, I think they should try to move him & get another guy, never been a fan, even with Wall down he didn’t step forward, got talent, lack ambition & will.
Anyone that wants Dwight Howard to be a scoring option over Otto has not watched the last few years. Wizards will be even worse this year if thats the case. Its Beal and Wall that need to be split up. Hasn’t worked yet and nothing will change
Thank the higher powers that allowed WAS to match the Brooklyn Nets offer sheet for OPJ.
Whiteside has to be motivated and he hasn’t been for a couple years. It was like he got his money and said I can relax now which is a pretty lousy attitude.
I wonder how many accounting firms or team executives have laundered money from athletes. If one person is doing shady things, it’s likely there’s another one. And so on…And so on…