On this week’s Heat Check: Breaking down the Miami Heat’s season opener and discussing Terry Rozier’s arrest. By Pierre Taylor
As Terry Rozier remains behind after his arrest in Orlando on Thursday morning, the Miami Heat is trying to move forward.
After the Heat gathered for a shootaround session on Friday morning ahead of Friday night’s matchup against the Grizzlies in Memphis, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra spoke about the importance of focusing on basketball just a day following Rozier’s arrest as part of a long-running federal gambling investigation.
“You’re left with no other choice,” Spoelstra said following Friday’s shootaround session. “The league doesn’t wait. It doesn’t stop for you. We had a meeting yesterday to address things and then today, it was the task at hand. And if you’ve been around long enough in this league, you have to learn how to compartmentalize and to focus on the most immediate thing.
That team meeting on Thursday was important, as the Heat gathered to discuss what happened to Rozier and the plan ahead.
“We just kept it simple,” Heat forward Nikola Jovic said. “Spo told us what happened and how it’s going to look and that’s it. I just feel like we’ve got to be on the same page and know exactly what’s happening, so that’s it.”
The federal investigation led to the arrests Thursday of Terry Rozier and dozens of others, including retired NBA journeyman Damon Jones (played one season with the Heat in 2004-05) and former NBA player and current Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups.
One case alleges illegal sports betting on NBA stats involving six defendants, which includes Rozier. The other alleges “rigged” poker games involving 31 defendants, but does not include Rozier.
Rozier was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the sports betting case. The arrest occurred early Thursday morning at an Orlando hotel, where the Heat stayed overnight following Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Magic before traveling to Memphis for Friday’s game against the Grizzlies.
“I mean obviously we can’t comment on the situation, but Terry is somebody who is very dear to all of us,” Spoelstra said Friday. “He’s had a real positive impact on our locker room, and the staff and players alike, and that includes last year, when he wasn’t in the rotation oftentimes. We send our thoughts and our care for him as he goes through this.”
That empathy for Rozier runs deep through the Heat’s roster.
“You never want to see something like that happen,” Heat captain and center Bam Adebayo said. “For us, as a team, we stand behind him, full support. And like I said, the biggest thing for us is keep praying for him, keep cheering for him behind the scenes and going out here to win games and change the narrative.”
Heat guard Davion Mitchell added: “We’re here with Terry. We all support him, what he’s going through. And we know it’s tough, but we’ve got his back no matter what.”
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 foot 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.
The NBA conducted an investigation on Rozier and did not find a violation of NBA rules before the FBI arrested Rozier months later.
“We’re together in this,” Jovic said. “Terry is a great person and we all love him and we’re with him. We’ll help him as much as we can. But I can’t say it’s easy, I can’t say it’s hard. But we just got to be together and continue doing this, I guess, without him for some time. But we’re with him and we love him and we’re going to support him in every way we can.”
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 in December. He will remain away from the Heat in the wake of his arrest after the league put him and Billups on “immediate leave from their teams,” but Rozier’s 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.
“You support him, through and through,” Adebayo said of Rozier on Friday. “That’s our brother at the end of the day. It felt kind of weird in him not being here, actually, because he’s usually the first person I get to talk to in the morning, and he brings that great energy to our team. So, for us, it’s uplifting that, and also playing through the noise.”
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 or league investigation into Rozier at the time of that trade, according to a league source.
“That’s our brother,” Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “We’ve had a lot of time with him. You know, see what happens. There’s a lot of stuff that we don’t know. Just waiting for more information to come out. And just as a collective, send our thoughts and prayers with him and his family.”