The NBA has quickly gone into a full embrace with the gambling world now that sports betting has been legalized in most of the United States, but while the business side is happy to partner with sportsbooks, the same rules exist for players when it comes to betting.
Any gambling on the NBA is completely off limits, and that is doubly the case when it involves the team you are playing on or your personal prop bets. Up until recently, the NBA had avoided the kinds of gambling controversies and suspensions that the NFL has dealt with in the past few years, but at the end of March a rather large betting scandal arrived at the NBA’s doorstep. The league is investigating allegations that Raptors big man Jontay Porter was knowingly involved in big hits from bettors on betting the under on his props in two games in January and March.
The red flags were raised by league-partner DraftKings, which noted Porter’s props on those nights were unusually the most-bet props of the night, with some accounts trying to bet five-figure sums on Porter’s unders. The insinuation has been that Porter was tipping off bettors to the fact that he wouldn’t play much in those games, which is, of course, a major no-no.
On Wednesday, Adam Silver addressed that investigation and said that, while it’s still ongoing, what Porter is accused of is a “cardinal sin” in the NBA and if they find he was involved, banishment from the league would be on the table.
Adam Silver says what Jontay Porter is accused of is a “cardinal sin” and that punishment for it could go up to banishment from the league.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 10, 2024
“There is nothing more serious, I think, around this league when it comes to gambling and betting on our games and that is a direct player involvement. So the investigation is ongoing but the consequences could be very severe,” Silver says of the NBA’s Jontay Porter probe. https://t.co/bsZiB5Eofv
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 10, 2024
That isn’t a major surprise as that has long been the response of league’s to players betting on their own teams, but it’s clear Silver wants to make sure the message is heard by everyone, including other players. To a league, betting on games you’re involved in is the worst thing you can do because it brings into question the integrity of the sport itself, which in turn craters trust with fans and makes the sport far less desirable to watch. We will have to wait to find out if the league can find proof Porter was, in fact, involved, but if so, it’s fair to assume Michael Porter Jr. will quickly become the only Porter brother left in the NBA.