Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is under investigation for allegedly altering his performance during a March 2023 game, as part of a federal probe concerning illegal sports gambling.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has been in contact with the NBA concerning the matter, which is part of a larger sports gambling scheme that has already implicated former Raptors forward Jontay Porter.
“In March 2023, the NBA was alerted to unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozier’s performance in a game between Charlotte and New Orleans,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. “The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rules. We are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation.”
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news about the inquiry into Rozier’s performance.
The game took place on March 23, 2023, when Rozier was a member of the Charlotte Hornets. Rozier averaged 35.3 minutes and 21.1 points per game that season, and entered the night with no injury designation.
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He started the game, but played only 9:34 minutes before he left the game with a supposed foot injury. He did not return and would subsequently miss the remaining eight games of the season.
That night, Rozier took just four shot attempts, making two of them, and scored five points, while adding four rebounds and two assists.
According to the Wall Street Journal, betting action on Rozier’s performance for that night was anomalous enough that it triggered alerts at U.S. Integrity, a firm that works closely with sports leagues, sportsbook operators and government agencies to track suspicious wagers. Per the Journal, U.S. Integrity notified sportsbooks and the NBA about the unusual bets coming in on Rozier’s performance.
As sports gambling has become ubiquitous, one of the more popular wagers bettors can make are prop bets that track an individual player’s performance. One such bet is the “under” on an individual player’s statistics. By taking the under, the bettor is wagering that the given player will fail to meet a specific statistical threshold — say, 15.5 points as an example — with any outcome below that figure resulting in a successful wager.
According to the Wall Street Journal, several sportsbooks halted taking any further bets on Rozier’s markets for that day, upon being notified by U.S. Integrity. Rozier has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing, per the Journal.
In January 2024, the Heat acquired Rozier in a trade with the Hornets that sent Kyle Lowry and a 2027 first-round pick to Charlotte.
The same federal probe found that Porter, 25, manipulated his performance and limited his game participation to influence the outcome of several prop bets. The probe resulted in multiple charges against Porter and a Brooklyn man for facilitating the alleged illegal gambling scheme.
The NBA also instituted a lifetime ban on Porter for “disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.”
The notable difference in Porter’s case and Rozier’s is that Porter was a fringe reserve while Rozier is an established veteran who has totaled more than $133 million in career earnings, according to Spotrac.com.
Follow NBA reporter Lorenzo Reyes on social media @LorenzoGReyes