Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested on Thursday as part of the FBI’s investigation into illegal sports betting. Following the arrest, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst suggested the NBA had secretly suspended Rozier in March 2023 after the betting activity in question was flagged. It was a stunning claim, and NBA insider Chris Haynes shared the league’s response to all this speculation when speaking about the Rozier scandal on Prime.
“Sources related to me that the NBA actually did confiscate Terry Rozier’s phone, but they could not find any wrongdoing,” Haynes said. “So I reached out to the NBA, and they provided a statement to me… and this is from Mike Bass, NBA spokesperson. [He] said ‘The NBA does not have the same authority or investigatory resources as the federal government, including subpoena power to obtain information from anyone, law enforcement surveillance, wiretapping, and search warrants.’
“And to that game in question, where Terry Rozier removed himself early from the game from a foot injury, he did not play the rest of that game in 2023, and that led to speculation that the NBA sat him down while they were investigating,” Haynes continued. “Well, Bass went on to say, ‘Any assertion that the NBA had anything to do with Terry Rozier not playing games following his departure from the game on March 23, 2023, is categorically false. Per team doctors, Rozier had a real foot injury, confirmed with the MRI.’”
It’s that game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023, that is the center of all this. It is alleged that Rozier told his childhood friend, Deniro Laster, that he would take himself out of the game early by faking an injury. Lester is then said to have sold that information to two bettors for about $100,000. The two and their associates then bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on the under on the guard’s props.
Rozier would only end up playing about nine minutes and 34 seconds for the Hornets that night before taking himself out of the game. This led to the unders cashing, and everyone involved in the supposed scheme made a pretty penny.
This activity was immediately flagged, as large amounts of money being bet on a player like Rozier in a somewhat meaningless game was suspicious. The fact that he then missed the final eight games of the season after that contest against the Pelicans led to the belief that the NBA stepped in. Mike Bass insists that it isn’t the case.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver also spoke about the indictments on Friday during the game between the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden. Silver stated that the league had indeed been informed about the activity, and they investigated the matter. They couldn’t identify any wrongdoing on Rozier’s part and cleared him to play. The FBI, though, appears to have found something.
Rozier, who has been released from custody, has now been placed on leave by the NBA. The 31-year-old is going to be fighting the charges, but it will be a while before we know his fate.
