The NBA just made an unprecedented disciplinary move. The league just banned Toronto Raptors guard Jontay Porter from the NBA for life.
Porter not only bet on his own team to take an L, but also did things to manipulate his play to alter the betting scales in his favor! Wild.
League Commissioner Adam Silver announced the historic punishment Wednesday. He explained that league investigators uncovered Porter’s involvement in a gambling scheme that questioned the integrity of the NBA’s competition back in March. The story gets deeper. The NBA claims Porter gave up confidential information regarding his health to one known gambler.
Get this: Another bettor associated with Porter made a $80K bet that Porter “would underperform” in the Raptors’ game on March 20 against the Sacramento Kings. It wasn’t just a bet to make $80K; the bettor stood to win $1.1 MILLION if the wager hit. That’s real money.
The NBA says Porter pulled himself from the game early due to his claim of some kind of illness. Because of the “unusual betting activity,” the bet was not “paid out” and was “frozen.”
There was a pattern with Porter, too. Silver asserted that NBA investigators found that Porter made “at least 13 bets on NBA games” while playing for both the Raptors and their G-League affiliate team from January through March. Silver continued that Porter made his plays using an associate’s betting account online to place his bets and won over $20K in profits.
“None of the bets involved any game in which Porter played,” the league said. ”Three of the bets were multi-game parlay bets that included one Raptors game, in which Porter bet that the Raptors would lose. All three bets lost.”
This gets more serious. Silver and the NBA are in contact with the feds. They promised to investigate Porter further. “There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport,” Silver said, “which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment.” Guess that’s a wrap for Porter’s career, and who knows, he might be facing criminal charges now that the Feds are involved.
