Despite his lawyer’s assertion that the NBA “cleared him two years ago,” Terry Rozier was never technically cleared of wrongdoing after the league looked into suspicious betting activity involving the guard in 2023, a source in the league office tells investigative reporter and podcaster Pablo Torre (Twitter video link).
“Terry’s investigation was never closed, so he was not cleared of anything,” that source said. “Us not being able to find something is not the same as cleared. It is true we did not find a violation of our rules, but we did not close our investigation.”
As Torre outlines, the NBA hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate Rozier following a flurry of activity on his “under” prop bets prior to a March 23, 2023 game when he was a member of the Hornets.
According to Torre, Rozier was interviewed via Zoom and turned over his phone to investigators, who looked for specific search terms. After not finding a “smoking gun,” those investigators ultimately deferred to the feds, while the guard was permitted to continue playing, first for the Hornets and later for the Heat.
Rozier is now facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering after being accused of telling his friend – and co-defendant – De’Niro Laster that he would remove himself early from that March 2023 game.
According to a federal indictment, Laster was paid $100K for sharing that information with another defendant, Marves Fairley. The tip was then allegedly shared with others, resulting in the group wagering $259K on those “under” prop bets, which hit after Rozier left the game in the first quarter with a foot injury. Prosecutors allege that winnings were later delivered to and counted at Rozier’s home.
Veteran NBA sharpshooter Malik Beasley has also been investigated by the U.S. District Attorney’s office and the NBA for possible illegal betting activity, and Torre hears from sources that both of those investigations are still ongoing.
According to Torre, the NBA previously looked at Beasley for bets he made on other sports. While he was cleared in that case, the league hasn’t yet closed its latest probe, despite so far finding “no hard evidence of Beasley altering his performance or communicating with gamblers to tip his performances,” per a league office source.
Beasley remains unsigned, with news of the investigation having broken just before he officially became a free agent this summer.
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I told someone to take the unders on Rozier for that game b/c I thought it was a bad matchup, then Charlotte played better with him out b/c of obvious reasons. Then Rozier was actually injured after, so I dont really get why its being assumed he took himself out of the game for nothing, or would have hit his props otherwise. He had an mri…this doesnt even make any sense. So if he had a bad game, b/c of the matchup, os that purposely not meeting the props too? This is why all of this shouldnt have ever been allowed; its a slippery slope. Prop bets are ridiculous for so many reasons. Why isnt it an issue if a coach leaves someone out of the game b/c of a run or something, and thats why they dont hit a prop? If it’s a bad matchup, and a coach knows that ahead of time, Isn’t that the same thing? Can you not make any comments about what might happen at a game if you are a player or coach, like at all? Even a throw away line, like o ya, my foot is actually bothering me lately, but I’m giving it a go? Could saying that to someone put you at risk? How do you know who might use that info to take some bet?
Its also such a comparatively low amount to what Rozier has, so why would he even put that as risk for little to no gain
It is what it is…obviously if he did it, then forget everything I am saying; I just think there are inconsistencies here and its all very confusing b/c it seemed as though Rozier had been cleared a couple of months ago
@form
If the team truly thought he was hurt do you think they would’ve insisted on him playing or just dnp’d him? By telling mngmt that you’re goof to go buy telling your friend EXACTLY when you’re TAKING YOURSELF out of the game is the issue. The fact that they met at his house to divide uo the winnings and pay him means a) someone snitched on him and told them that he orchestrated it b). did it out of greed of more money.
Al
Some of the math and money doesn’t make sense. His friend was paid $100K for the information, so I assume that was cash, But these other individuals then placed $259K worth of bets, I am assuming that was electronic, so how does the cash out work and at what point were the winnings brought to his house and divided. Also why would you pay someone 100K for the information and then split the winnings with them?