Jontay Porter is currently facing serious federal charges in relation to a gambling controversy that has led to his permanent expulsion from the NBA.
The discovery on April 4 revealed that Porter would no longer be allowed to participate in the league after he was caught leaking confidential data to sports bettors and deliberately playing below performance standards in order to influence betting outcomes.
Porter was involved in a plot where he intentionally underperformed and restricted his game time to influence specific betting conditions. The NBA closely examined his behavior in particular matches, such as the clash against the Los Angeles Clippers on January 26 (which resulted in a 107-127 loss) and the game versus the Sacramento Kings on March 20 (with a final score of 89-123).
Prosecutors claim that Porter divulged his plan to four gamblers (Long Phi Pham, Mahmud Mollah, Timothy McCormack, and Ammar Awawdeh) to exit matches early by pretending to be injured or unwell. As a consequence, all four individuals are facing charges for “conspiring to commit wire fraud.”
These accused gamblers placed bets that anticipated Porter falling short of specific statistical benchmarks like points, rebounds, assists, and more. Among them, one bettor risked an $80,000 parlay for a potential $1.1 million win. True to predictions, during the March 20 game, Porter only played for three minutes before leaving due to illness.
The NBA became aware of suspicious betting behaviors related to Porter’s performance against the Kings through sports betting platforms.
Porter’s lawyer, Jeff Jensen, attributed his client’s actions to a gambling dependency, citing that Porter felt overwhelmed. Reports disclosed that from January to March 2024, Porter placed 13 bets totaling $54,094 on a friend’s betting account and made a profit of $21,965 from these bets.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver weighed in on the issue, stressing the significance of protecting the integrity of NBA competitions and highlighting the severe consequences for Porter’s regulatory breaches.
Porter, who is the younger sibling of Nuggets’ player Michael Porter Jr., was under a two-way contract during the 2023-24 season. In his 26 games, he maintained an average of 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.3 assists within 13.8 minutes per game.
In a separate incident, Tim Donaghy insinuated the involvement of Shohei Ohtani in a sports betting controversy alongside his interpreter.
