Jontay Porter was making $411,794 to play power forward and center this season for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors. The former University of Missouri player had made between $2 million and $3 million since his 2021 rookie season. The NBA announced Wednesday that Porter, while playing in the NBA’s developmental league in March, placed at least 13 bets on NBA games; none of them were on games he played in. According to the NBA’s investigation, using an “associate’s” account, Porter wagered a total of $54,094 and made a total of $21,965 profit.
The NBA announced Wednesday that Porter has been banned from the league for life.
The NBA announced Wednesday that Porter has been banned from the league for life after an investigation found that he “violated league rules by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.”
Porter had placed NBA bets in amounts that ranged from $15 to $22,000, the league said, through that “associate’s” account. But then, the NBA announced, an $80,000 bet was placed that Porter would underperform in the Raptors’ March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings, a game the Raptors lost 123-89. Porter checked in late in the first quarter and played only about three minutes total. He claimed to be sick, the NBA said. Had the bet not been frozen, it would have paid out at over a million dollars. But a wager that large (and on a marginal player) alerted the minders of the betting app that skullduggery might be afoot, the NBA said. Those managing the betting app contacted the league, which conducted the investigation that led to Porter’s being banned.
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement Wednesday.
In a statement acknowledging Porter’s ban, the National Basketball Players Association said Wednesday, “Adherence to league gambling policies is paramount to maintaining the integrity of our athletes and protecting the future of the sport.” According to that statement: “The NBPA will make sure Jontay has access to the resources he needs during this time, in light of the NBA’s decision. All players, including Jontay, should be afforded appropriate due process and opportunity to answer to any charges brought against them.”
In addition to that, the NBPA said that it “will continue to provide all players with training materials to ensure they understand how to properly navigate the complex sports betting landscape.”
Neither Porter nor his agent appear to have responded to news of the NBA’s investigation or Wednesday’s announcement that he has been banned for life.
On its face, the story seems straightforward: If you attempt to fix games or individual performances, then you are banned. You can keep playing if you commit any number of other crimes, but if you’re part of a scam that affects the outcomes of games, as the NBA says Porter was, then you’re messing with everyone’s pocketbook and must go. People won’t watch scripted sports, unless it’s professional wrestling; therefore, the hammer must be brought down without any mercy.
Banning a player is easier, of course, when that player was near the end of the bench, as Porter was. Thus, Porter gave Silver a pain-free bloody shirt for him to wave in front of players. The explicit message from Silver to players is that if you bet on any aspect of any NBA game, even or especially through a legal sports betting app, then you will be gone, a memory.
The money that the league has made by partnering with the gambling companies is stuffing everyone’s pockets.
The implicit message to players is: Don’t ruin this. The money that the league has made by partnering with the gambling companies is stuffing everyone’s pockets. Team “governors” (franchise owners) are raking it in. NBA coaches are receiving record-breaking contracts. Players are getting deals that represent generational wealth for their families. Last year, Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown signed five-year contract worth $304 million. Michael Jordan made an estimated $94 million from the NBA across his career.
Now that sports gambling is legal in 38 states — Nevada stood alone six years ago — the numbers are eye-popping: People wagered a record $119.84 billion on legal sports betting in the U.S. in 2023, with the sports leagues — and sports media networks — all vying for their piece. Youth gambling and youth gambling addiction have skyrocketed, too.
I also asked #Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton specifically about speaking to a sports psychologist, and he noted in his response how sports betting has consumed a lot of his social media.
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) March 20, 2024
“To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever. I’m a prop.“ pic.twitter.com/6f2a0vEuiK
That’s what makes Silver’s response hypocritical. Avarice has led the whole sports world into the world of legal betting — despite the obvious harm. Silver was the first major sports commissioner to step out and support gambling. He memorably wrote a 2014 op-ed for The New York Times in which he said that sports gambling needed to be legalized and regulated.
He wrote, “One of my most important responsibilities as commissioner of the N.B.A. is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport. I oppose any course of action that would compromise these objectives.
“But I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated,” he wrote. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that had required states to ban such wagers. Fast-forward six years, and now you can bet on NBA games directly through the league’s own League Pass streaming service. The NBA is now basically the Bellagio. Silver has been central to creating a sports culture in which gambling ads subsume the product, but that’s not the worst of it. Players and coaches have reported being heckled — or, even worse, threatened, according to Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff — by bettors. Silver didn’t make any public statements about those two alarming stories. All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton of the Indianapolis Pacers said last month that he felt like a gambling “prop.” He said, “To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever.” Last month, Bickerstaff described a situation in which he said gamblers “got my telephone number and were sending me crazy messages about where I live and my kids and all that stuff.” Bickerstaff said the person was tracked down after he alerted security: “No charges,” he said. “But they found him.” Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, where the Cavaliers play, has a Ceasars Sportsbook on site. In such an environment, banning Porter looks less like justice than an act of venal hypocrisy. The atmosphere is all about betting all the time. Why should it surprise anyone if a player gets sucked into that? Athletes have a lot of downtime and lots of disposable income, and, like the rest of us, they are on their phones constantly. That is a recipe for a player to risk it all for the thrill of placing a bet. A reckoning about the harm gambling has done to the sport is all but inevitable. Silver must know this, and he must be trying to delay that day for as long as possible. While the social media mobs will no doubt cheer Porter’s being banned, Silver must be also held to account for his league’s total embrace of gambling. Jontay Porter fell into a world he wasn’t prepared for. But the world he fell into is one of Adam Silver’s making.
Dave Zirin
Dave Zirin is sports editor of The Nation. He is the author of 11 books on the politics of sports, including "The Kaepernick Effect." He is also the host of the "Edge of Sports" podcast. 
