On this week’s Heat Check: Breaking down the Miami Heat’s season opener and discussing Terry Rozier’s arrest. By Pierre Taylor
A pair of long-running federal gambling investigations looms over the first week of this NBA season.
Those federal investigations led to the arrests Thursday of Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and dozens of others, and sparked a lively discussion on ESPN’s “Inside the NBA” among the studio show’s analysts/former NBA players Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal.
“It’s super unfortunate,” Smith said.
One case alleges illegal sports betting on NBA stats involving six defendants, including Rozier and retired NBA journeyman Damon Jones (played one season with the Heat in 2004-05). The other alleges “rigged” poker games involving 31 defendants, including several members of New York crime families, as well as Jones and former NBA player and current Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups.
Rozier was arrested on charges in the sports betting case in Orlando, where the Heat stayed overnight following Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Magic. The Heat is now in Memphis for Friday night’s matchup against the Grizzlies, but Rozier is away from the team after the NBA placed Billups and Rozier “on immediate leave from their teams” following their arrests on Thursday.
“We look at players that are involved and the people that are involved, we’re surprised because when you have access and you’re at the top of your game, so to speak, as a coaching profession, a player, whatever, you’re at the top of your game, you have access to millions and millions of dollars in this league,” Smith continued. “So it was surprising that they would put themselves in that position, possibly. It is innocent until proven guilty. I think the other part is, we have to realize that gambling is an addiction. So, the addiction of it is what makes you make illogical decisions.”
Each defendant in the illegal sports betting case, including Rozier, has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Rozier, 31, has been under investigation as part of a probe connected to unusual betting activity surrounding a 2023 game while he was with the Charlotte Hornets.
According to the indictment filed in Brooklyn federal court, when Rozier was playing for the Hornets, he tipped off a friend that he was going to pull himself out of a March 2023 NBA game prematurely because of a supposed injury. The friend and others in his inner circle used the inside information and bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on the guard’s sub-par performance, the indictment says.
“Rozier’s early exit from the March 23 game and his related underperformance relative to his season averages for points, assists and three-pointers resulted in the success of numerous fraudulent wagers placed on [his] unders by the defendants and their co-conspirators,” the indictment said, noting that a week later the friend counted his cut of the betting proceeds with Rozier at the player’s home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Gambling is an addiction, which can make you make illogical decisions regardless of your ethnic background, regardless of your physical background, and regardless of your financial status,” Smith said on ESPN. “So, let’s understand that.”
The game in question came on March 23, 2023, when Rozier was a member of the Hornets before he was traded to the Heat in January 2024.
Rozier totaled five points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, four rebounds, two assists and one steal in 9:34 before leaving the Hornets’ loss to the Pelicans early with a foot injury despite not being listed on the injury report prior to that March 2023 contest. He didn’t play again that season.
The NBA conducted an investigation on Rozier and did not find a violation of NBA rules before the FBI arrested Rozier months later.
“This is about the letter of the law when it comes to gambling and sports gambling,” said O’Neal, who won a championship with the Heat in 2006 during his Hall of Fame playing career. “And I don’t want to sit up here like I’m some perfect guy. Every now and then when I go to Vegas, I’ll play some craps and I’ll play some roulette. But I’ve never gambled at anybody’s house. Don’t know anything about poker.
“But I’m ashamed that those guys will put their families and their careers in jeopardy. There’s an old saying in the hood — all money ain’t good money. So if you’re making $9 million and you’re dealing in certain things, how much more do you need? Especially if you know you can get caught, you can do jail time and lose your career. Put a bad image on yourself or your family or on the NBA.”
The investigation into Rozier is part of a larger government probe that led to a criminal charge and lifetime ban from the NBA for former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter.
Rozier is on an expiring contract that pays him $26.6 million this season. If Rozier is ruled ineligible by the NBA, his salary after such an NBA ruling would be removed from the Heat’s salary cap, luxury tax and tax aprons. The Heat is currently operating just $1.6 million below the NBA’s punitive luxury tax line, but it remains unclear if and when the NBA would deem Rozier ineligible amid the ongoing federal investigation.
Rozier, who was released on bond after appearing in Orlando federal court on Thursday, now faces an arraignment in New York. He will remain away from the Heat in the wake of his arrest, but his contract will still count toward the Heat’s salary cap for now.
Rozier had to put up his $6 million Florida property as collateral for bond. He appeared in court Thursday handcuffed and shackled at the ankles and was wearing a Hornets sweatshirt.
“This ain’t got nothing to do with a damn gambling addiction,” Barkley said, disagreeing with Smith. “This ain’t got nothing to do with addiction. These dudes are stupid. Under no circumstances can you fix basketball games. Under no circumstances. I love to gamble. The notion, like, Rozier makes $26 million. Him giving people information or taking himself out of games, how much is he going to benefit taking himself out of the game to get unders? Like, he’s making $26 million. The notion, how much of these guys he gave a heads up, he took himself out of games on prop bets. How much money is he going to make?”
Rozier began last season as a Heat starter and was expected to be one of the team’s top offensive players, but he instead completely fell out of the Heat’s rotation toward the end of the schedule amid one of the worst seasons of his NBA career.
Rozier did not play in Wednesday’s season opener against the Magic in Orlando because of a coach’s decision. He was in uniform for the contest.
The Heat traded Kyle Lowry’s $29.7 million expiring contract and a first-round pick to the Hornets to land Rozier in the middle of the 2023-24 season. The Heat was unaware of any potential federal investigation into Rozier at the time of that trade, according to a league source.
“I also think that because there are people who get speeding tickets doesn’t mean everyone in the league speeds,’ Smith said, downplaying the notion that gambling is an issue around the NBA. “And so, don’t look at this group of people that are starting to get investigated as the entire league.”