In a scandal so huge it threatens to derail the entire NBA, more names are emerging in a gambling ring that has already involved a Hall of Famer and a current Miami Heat player.
Shockwaves already hit this morning when Hall of Famer and (now former) head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, Chauncey Billups, was arrested by the FBI. It got even bigger when Heat guard Terry Rozier was detained for sports betting and faking an injury. Former player Damon Jones is also named.
The Rozier indictment doesn’t stop there, as more people were apparently involved in this scheme. Reportedly, a co-conspirator sought information from a former Orlando Magic regular about an April game in 2023. This is fast approaching becoming the biggest scandal in NBA history.
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What Connection Does the Orlando Magic’s 2023 Game Have in the Betting Probe?
According to a press release from the FBI, this was an NBA gambling scheme that was a “sophisticated conspiracy involving players, coaches, and intermediaries.”.
Several games were involved in the betting scheme, where injuries and player availability were tipped off before becoming public to aid betting on games.
One of the games listed was an Orlando Magic game on April 6th, 2023. The Magic would lose by 24 that game, who sat all their starters. To quote the press release: “…a tip obtained through an inside connection to a then Orlando Magic player. A co-conspirator leveraged a relationship with the Magic player to learn that several of the team’s top players would sit out a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.” As the report mentions, this was a then-Magic player; it is not yet known who that player is.
Furthermore, according to FairplayGov, one of the listed defendants, Marves Fairley, leveraged a co-conspirator known as ‘co-conspirator 1,’ described as a “Florida resident” and an “NBA player at times”.
According to the report, co-conspirator 1’s: “…Personal relationship with one of the Magic’s regularly starting players, ‘player 2’ known only to the Grand Jury, to obtain non-public information about the April 6th game, which they used to place one successful wager.” Thus, the unnamed player informed the co-conspirator hours before the game, and this was then relayed to Fairley, who placed a $11,000 bet.
Looking at the roster in 2023, the players who have since left the Magic from that roster are Jay Scrubb, Cole Anthony, Markelle Fultz, Gary Harris and Chuma Okeke. Of those names, Scrubb and Okeke are in Europe and played in that April 6th game. Anthony, Fultz, and Harris were the only ones on the list who started regularly and have since left the Magic, and those three sat out that game. It would be unfair to speculate who it was until it is released.
Nevertheless, this scandal is getting bigger, in a nightmare scenario for Commissioner Adam Silver.