Raptors’ Porter banned
Life suspension for betting ties
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter was banned for life from the NBA on Wednesday after a league probe found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors and wagered on games, even betting on the Raptors to lose.
Porter is the second person to be banned by Commissioner Adam Silver for violating league rules. The other was nowformer Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in 2014, shortly after Silver took office.
Silver called Porter’s actions “blatant.”
“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,” Silver said.
The league learned from “licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets” about unusual gambling patterns surrounding Porter’s performance in a game on March 20 against Sacramento. The league determined that Porter gave a bettor information about his own health status prior that game and said that another individual — known to be an NBA bettor — placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would not hit the numbers set for him in parlays through an online sports book. That bet would have won $1.1 million.
Porter took himself out of that game after less than three minutes, claiming illness, none of his stats meeting the totals set in the parlay. The $80,000 bet was frozen and not paid out, the league said, and the NBA started an investigation not long afterward.
Silver cautioned last week that this move was possible, saying what Porter was accused of represented “cardinal sin” in the NBA. Porter has not commented since the investigation began, and never played for the Raptors again — he was listed as out for all of Toronto’s games for the remainder of the season citing personal reasons.
The league also determined that Porter — the brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. — placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using someone else’s betting account. The bets ranged from $15 to $22,000; the total wagered was $54,094 and generated a payout of $76,059, or net winnings of $21,965.
Play-in game
The Philadelphia 76ers earned their way into the playoffs with a 105-104 victory against the Miami Heat, who will be in an elimination game at home Friday against the winner of the Atlanta-Chicago game late Wednesday.
Joel Embiid had 23 points and 15 rebounds for the 76ers, who earned the No. 7 seed and will play the New York Knicks in a best-of-seven series beginning Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
In the final seconds of a back- and- forth fourth quarter, Tyrese Maxey’s two free throws gave the 76ers a 105-100 lead with eight seconds left. Tyler Herro, who led Miami with 25 points, cut the lead with four with a free throw then sank a 3pointer with 1.1 seconds left.