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. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York 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.
Use promo code FEDERALARREST or BANNEDFORLIFE for 30% off your first bet on fanduel today!
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.
It seems there are inconsistencies in that part of the story though. When did they meet at his home? Who got what? What was on the MRI? What exactly did he say to someone about potentially coming out of a game early? Also, I still think they did better in that game b/c he came out, but thats a separate thing, I guess….I just dont get why it doesnt matter if someone else comes out of a game and doesnt hit their prop, and someone took the under for that. How do they know anyone taking the under did so with info, and not b/c they decided to take the under in what was a bad matchup
“How do they know other people don’t do this”
They don’t but if they caught Rozier then he’s screwed(feds have like 90% conviction rate). The details you want are probably only known by Terry, Kash Patel and Pablo “all seeing eye” Torre. More details will come out next Pablo podcast. Just subscribe to his show if you want to see the criminal gamblers involved and more juicy details.
There are inconsistencies woth a lot of DoJ/FBI stuff that bring question to their “investigation” as well, but I’m not following this stuff further to put more care into it. Content machine already ruined sports anyway…
I mostly just am curious about what actually happened b/c I legit told someone to take those unders, and I also made the pick for that same Lakers/Milwaukee game. I remember those specifically b/c I got stuck in a 3 hour conversation where I had to repeat myself like 17 times. I was watching when Rozier hurt his foot too, so just for that part alone, I am confused by the situation, b/c again, he had an mri afterward that I remember being reported as though he was hurt, so did he fake an injury or not?
Then also, as a Heat fan, I am holding out hope they get some sort of salary relief from this without having to wait for the resolution, since Rozier’s contract is expiring anyway, and this wont be resolved by the end of the season…at least to be able to sign someone to the end of the roster (I dont agree woth other Heat fans that want the pick back)…
You want details on the illegal gambling ring? Call Pablo or Terry or wait for the trial.
Okay, we get it, Pablo. You want people to subscribe to your show.
@alien
I knew you guys were real.
I want Adam Silver to subscribe so we don’t have ineffective NBA investigations. Imagine if Silver was actually doing his job and told Ballmer they can’t have sponsors give his player a no show endorsement deal. Then we wouldn’t need Torre to dive deep into this.
I am wondering about the foot injury. Either he was hurt or he wasnt. That seems to be inconsistent info
formerlyz people can get injured to varying degrees and not all doctors will agree about MRI results. You want someone’s private medical history? We have hipaa laws against that.
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?
There’s probably much more to it than we know. There’s small casinos all over the country now. Plus illegal bookmakers probably aren’t calling the FBI if they got ripped off. These rings usually spread out bets among many places.
Just imagine how much money they made if they met up a week later to count it. If it was only 1 payment, wouldn’t you count it immediately? Not risk getting played? It was so much money that they had to make a little get together to get it in order.
Why are so many here confused by this? This stuff is easy to understand for people who grew up on mob movies. More will come out now that everyone is snitching so they don’t get stuck with the worst prison sentence.
I hope Chauncey and Rozier like Ramen burritos for dinner.
Beasley was not cleared by the US District Attorney. They don’t exist. It was the US Attorney for the Eastern District of NY.
Pablo Torre with another banger. Beasley timing joining up with Lakers and Damon Jones then LBJ sitting isn’t looking good for LeBron. I really hope he wasn’t pulling a Rozier.
Chauncey wearing that Klutch sweater at bail or court is probably not the advertising Rich Paul wants.
Favorite part of the PTFO podcast was learning congress is about to call up Silver to testify under oath on TV.
Adam Silver hires investigators who can’t find anything. Meanwhile Pablo Torre finds a twitter account of a moose who was selling betting tips and spilling the tea months or years ago. Dude even bragged about it in a telegram chat.
Adam Silver apparently didn’t have his blind investigators check their twitter or telegram. Wait till Torre finds Rozier’s discord chats. Silver has probably never even heard of these apps or doesn’t want to know the truth.
Damage control….so why was Rozier playing if not cleared. And why traded if not ticked off by the NBA. The NBA is crooked in so many ways. Massive amounts of insider trading going on between sponsors, owners, players, friend and family. Crooked officiating to prolong a series or manipulate results. It’s entertaining to me these days.
Rozier was making 20M+ and the league couldn’t just withhold that from him based on speculation. The players association wouldn’t allow it.
Thats why he was playing. Not a difficult concept. If he’s getting paid, he’s taking the court.
If the heat were told he was cleared (as reported) when he was not…. after not being informed of the investigation until it went public… are they just adding 0’s to the lawsuit at this point? WOW
I just watched video of Adam Silver saying Rozier was cleared by the NBA…. this is nuts
It seems like whether or not Rozier was considered “cleared” comes down to your definition of the word.
NBA investigated and didn’t find anything, so he was “cleared” to continue playing, but if they also didn’t find definitive proof there WASN’T any wrongdoing, they couldn’t fully exonerate him, so he wasn’t “cleared” from that perspective.
Given that it’s essentially impossible to prove a negative, I don’t know how you could ever FULLY “clear” someone in the latter sense of the word though.
Silver said “we could not find any nefarious action taken by Rozier” it was in the tunnel of a game… I’m not sure who the interviewer was