As part of its investigation into illegal gambling, the NBA has asked several teams, including the Lakers, to turn over documents and other items, six league sources tell Joe Vardon, Mike Vorkunov and Sam Amick of The Athletic.
Prodded by Congress, the league is conducting a probe related to the federal charges brought last month against Heat guard Terry Rozier, Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player Damon Jones, who previously served as LeBron James‘ shooting coach and had access to inside information on the Lakers.
The investigation is being handled by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which has been contacting teams for access to cell phones, according to the authors. League sources tell them that Lakers assistant trainer Mike Mancias and executive administrator Randy Mims are already cooperating with the investigation and voluntarily turned over their phones.
Vardon, Vorkunov and Amick point out that Mancias has served as James’ personal trainer for the past two decades and Mims has been James’ close friend since high school. Their connections to Jones are expected to be further explored as part of the investigation.
“The NBA engaged an independent law firm to investigate the allegations in the indictment once it was made public,” a league spokesman told The Athletic. “As is standard in these kinds of investigations, a number of different individuals and organizations were asked to preserve documents and records. Everyone has been fully cooperative.”
The authors point out that James, Mancias and Mims haven’t been charged with anything and haven’t been directly named in any charging document. However, their relationship with Jones could be significant, as he’s being accused of selling private injury information to gamblers regarding two Lakers players.
Jones entered a not guilty plea at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn on November 6. The government is accusing him of twice selling information to bettors regarding the injury status of two Lakers stars. The case alleges that Jones found out on the morning of February 9, 2023, that “Player 3” wouldn’t be active that night against Milwaukee and relayed that information to another person, whom he told to place a “big bet” on the Bucks. The authors note that James didn’t play that night.
A similar incident took place for a January 15, 2024, game against Oklahoma City, according to the government’s case.
League sources also tell Vardon, Vorkunov and Amick that at least two executives with teams mentioned in the charges against Jones and Rozier received notice from the league about an expanding investigation.
The authors state that the government also alleges that a “regularly starting player” with the Magic told a gambler that the team planned to rest its starters during an April 2023 game against Cleveland, and that information was sold to other bettors. A league source tells the authors that Orlando officials haven’t been contacted by the Department of Justice and the player in question is no longer with the team.
Illegal bets were placed against Portland with information supplied to gamblers by a coach matching Billups’ description, according to the government, but Billups has only been charged with participating in illegal poker games.
Sources tell the authors that the NBA is in the process of adopting stricter rules for teams to follow in reporting the status of injured players.
Lol.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMM
I wonder if Lebron is going to go try playing baseball soon?
LeBron isn’t a suspect FFS.
It’s a joke FFS. Get a grip.
Calmer than you are dude.
I mean LeBron will never be punished even if he is guilty, but let’s not act like LeBron takes input from anyone within the organization on when to play and when not to play.
His friend is supplying the privileged information, LeBron is a control freak about what happens with his body, and the information came out in the morning. I don’t think the head medical trainer walks around morning shoot around telling LeBron when he can and cannot play. The decision was made by LeBron.
I am not saying he utilized his decision purposefully to help his friend cheat the spread for opportunistic gamblers. But let’s not act like it’s totally implausible LeBron has potential guilt here. It’s only implausible that the NBA would punish him.
You better believe Damon Jones would do time for that LeBron gift basket that’s waiting for him when he gets out.
The guilty will never be punished but the little guy will
Once again, LeBron isn’t a suspect FFS.
Correction. LeBron has not been named as a suspect. They can investigate him, and everyone around him, without actually naming him as a suspect. But if you really think he’s not a suspect, when everyone around him is being investigated, you’re very naive.
Yes he was named
His name was dropped but no way would they admit he did something wrong
Things you’re overly confident about but are actually clueless about for 500$ Mr. Trebek.
Came here to comment “lebrons baseball career coming soon “
My man! Lol
his translator did it
This is now getting interesting…
To think his as limited to one or two players ex-players is wishful thinking by the NBA.
There is a problem and they want it swept under the rug, if possible…
What were the odds on an AD Luka trade before the trade?
LOL well done.
Shohei did it
nothing to do with hoops + why would he do that? use your brain.
And David Stern told me Tim Donaghy was a rogue and laughed off the fixed Ewing Lottery.
Asking for cell phones? Just pull a Brady and get rid of them.
Why does this article specifically name the Lakers and not the other teams? I guess we can assume Portland and Miami are included but this is poor/click bait reporting. Just list them all
They don’t know any others, obviously.
“as part of its investigation into illegal gambling, the NBA has asked SEVERAL teams (including the Lakers) to turn over documents and other items, according to six league sources.” Not sure how you read that sentence and think the omission of other teams in this article means they “obviously” don’t know others.
The Lakers are the only one that’s been confirmed. If others had been, we’d certainly mention them.
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it and your work.
Greed has no boundaries. Unfortunately stupidity does. Clean up your act NBA.
IDK, nowadays it’s looking like stupidity has no boundaries either lol
Oh so now we are concerted about sports betting, NBA. I can’t even watch Wolves games unless I send money to Fan Duel (sports network) which I will never do.
Nothing will happen people. Money and greed is more important than anything else
That’s why should be only prop bets in the overs, never the downs, then any inside information would not be illegal, just an easy solution!
Gambling is criminal infested by nature! not to speak from the danger of addiction.
open your league (nba, ncaa whatbever) to it and than “wondering” about all the s**t that is going down.
come one…
these guys must have done something bad and are now being blackmailed
it’s the only logical explanation
I was wondering if they are looking for evidence that the Doncic trade was legit…