Terry Rozier is being investigated for alleged point-shaving.
The Heat guard has been under federal investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The investigation into Rozier is part of a larger one that led to a lifetime ban from the NBA for former Raptors forward Jontay Porter in April 2024. The government is investigating a ring of sports and poker gamblers for possibly fixing outcomes across sports, according to the Journal.
“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 said in a statement. “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.”
Porter pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in July and was scheduled to be sentenced in December. But his sentencing was pushed back to May at the request of federal prosecutors. Porter’s lawyer and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The feds believe the insiders who worked with Porter to intentionally fail in two games “had inside information that prompted them to bet large sums of money against Rozier a year earlier,” the Journal reported.
Rozier is better known in the NBA than Porter, whose career was derailed by knee injuries and appeared in only 37 total games. Rozier, known as “Scary Terry” for his playoff performances, is a 10-year veteran and valuable rotation player. For his career, Rozier has averaged 14.3 points per game on 42% shooting and has made more than $133 million in salary. He had 22 points in the Heat’s loss to the Cavaliers on Wednesday, and the team doesn’t play again until Saturday in San Antonio. A Heat spokesperson declined to comment and deferred to Bass’s statement. Rozier’s agent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rozier has not been charged with a crime or punished by the league.
On March 23, 2023, Rozier was a member of the Hornets and started against the Pelicans before being subbed out with a foot injury. The injury cost him the final eight games of the regular season. The Hornets deferred to the NBA’s statement, and the National Basketball Players Association declined to comment.
IC360—formerly known as U.S. Integrity—identified unusual patterns on bets involving Rozier’s unders for the Pelicans game, according to the Journal. Those bets included the total number of points and rebounds placed on Rozier. Several books removed lines for Rozier that night, and bettors on social media noticed at the time. One post raised eyebrows Thursday after the news broke.
Gambling influencer Greg Ehrenberg wrote in March 2023, “Got lucky that I was fed some inside info that Rozier was leaving in the first or second quarter.”
Ehrenberg told FOS on Thursday that he was “trolling.”
“Most of the bets recommended in our tools are unders,” he said, “so I troll people whenever they complain about players getting hurt.”
Messages left with IC360 officials by FOS were not immediately returned. IC360 counts the NBA among the leagues it has partnerships with to monitor potentially illicit gambling activity along with many major sportsbooks.
U.S. Integrity has sent out alerts for just three NBA games in the past two seasons, according to the Journal. Two were for the games Porter subbed himself out of and the other was the Hornets-Pelicans game Rozier played just nine minutes in.
Five gamblers have been charged for their role in the Porter scheme, with three of them pleading guilty. One was arrested at the airport attempting to leave the country and was found with a disguise, two cashier’s checks, and $12,000 in cash.
