\tAdam Silver is sending dark telepathic signals to LeBron James. The commissioner is demanding cell phones and records from James\u2019 longtime personal trainer, Mike Mancias, and Randy Mims, a business partner of James for 20 years and an executive administrator with the Lakers. Why not ask James for his phone, too? Is that next?<\/p>\n
\tDon\u2019t we all want to know if he supplied illegal dirt to Damon Jones?<\/p>\n
\tThe NBA\u2019s gambling probe has reached the point where we must ask: Would the league have the guts to suspend the all-time leading scorer \u2014 or worse \u2014 if James informed Jones that he wasn\u2019t playing and facilitated illegal betting that involved the mafia? Two seasons ago, after he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar atop the points list, James allegedly used a text to Jones that indicated he was sitting out.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBet enough so Djones can eat now!!!\u201d James wrote.<\/p>\n
\tFor James to sink into the scum of wagering \u2014 \u201cBet enough\u201d to help Jones financially \u2014 is lower than low in the realm of sports superstars. The word \u201cbet\u201d never should cross his lips, especially when he\u2019s dealing with a former shooting coach involved with the mob.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cGet a big bet on Milwaukee tonight,\u201d Jones wrote online, knowing a Thursday night home game against the Bucks followed the record-breaker on a Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\tJones has been a central part of Team LeBron and is known by Mancias and Mims. They are among figures with multiple NBA teams, in reporting published Saturday night by The Athletic, while the Department of Justice wants more evidence about Jones, Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and other potential crooks. An independent law firm asked the Lakers and other teams for phones and documents. We\u2019ve yet to hear a word from James, expected to rejoin a 10-4 team after Jones pleaded not guilty to two charges: using inside information to make bets, and cheating in high-stakes poker games.<\/p>\n
\tDo we really want to watch LeBron play ball again? Shouldn\u2019t he address, as the news has lingered in headlines, his role in the Jones scheme? Did Jones make money twice in providing injury news about the Lakers to bettors? The league has dealt with serious gambling stories for much too long \u2014 dating to referee Tim Donaghy and Jontay Porter, who was banned in April 2024. Back when I was covering the Bulls in the Jordan Era, I probed why the game clock suddenly stopped in the final minute of a game at the United Center. I knew people who worked on the scorer\u2019s table. I visited WGN TV and asked questions.<\/p>\n
\tNo, those people said. The Detroit Pistons had similar issues.<\/p>\n
\tWhen former NBA commissioner David Stern referred to Donaghy as \u201ca rogue, isolated criminal,\u201d didn\u2019t he realize his league was dishonest? Silver is entering territory last seen by Bud Selig \u2014 who appeared before Congress about steroids. Baseball was devastated by that era. Will gambling gut pro basketball \u2014 when James has been a dominant figure since 2003, helped along the way by Jones, Mancias and Mims?<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe NBA engaged an independent law firm to investigate the allegations in the indictment once it was made public,\u201d an NBA spokesman told The Athletic. \u201cAs is standard in these kinds of investigations, a number of different individuals and organizations were asked to preserve documents and records.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThis is not \u201cstandard\u201d behavior. The feds will rub out Jones, Billups and Rozier. We are left to wonder what\u2019s next. The NFL once asked Tom Brady for his cellphone during the Deflategate scandal. When the phone was destroyed, commissioner Roger Goodell had a smoking gun that led to a four-game suspension without pay.<\/p>\n
\tAsk LeBron for his phone. Or is Silver worried he will retire on the spot?<\/p>\n
\tSo be it.<\/p>\n
\t###<\/p>\n
\tJay Mariotti, called \u201cwithout question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,\u2019\u2019 writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk\/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adam Silver is sending dark telepathic signals to LeBron James. The commissioner is demanding cell phones and records…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-288319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}