Translator's Note: This article was originally published by The Athletic, written by Eric Koreen. The data in the article are as of the time of publication of the original article (October 24, local time). The opinions in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform.
In March 2024, the Toronto Raptors' season has basically ended early. The team has been transformed beyond recognition due to widespread injuries. Although the game is still on schedule, no one is looking forward to it. At the time, the league was investigating Jontae Porter, a fringe player on this mediocre team, and implicating him in a gambling investigation. This was the first such investigation since the NBA cooperated with a number of legal betting agencies. The matter sounded quite darkly humorous. At the time, this seemed not only absurd, but even outrageous.
You never know, a seemingly isolated incident may become a symptom of a larger problem. As it turns out, the Porter investigation was just the first public sign of a flood of issues affecting the league's integrity. The NBA is facing its most serious credibility crisis in at least two decades after the FBI announced a series of indictments on Thursday involving two illegal betting cases involving an active coach, an active player and a longtime confidant of LeBron James.
And league president Adam Silver is now more concerned than ever: Can he find a balance between patience and fairness? Can you be both good at listening and firm at the same time?
This indictment is one of the double impacts on the integrity of the league. The other impact is the possible salary cap circumvention of the Los Angeles Clippers. Unlike this case, the Clippers scandal is not a legal issue for the league. However, the possibility of a team failing to abide by the rules established through collective bargaining between the league and its players is a serious problem in itself. The league does not stipulate that every team must have an equal chance to win the championship, but in a league that has long been accused of favoring big-city teams and star players, there is undoubtedly a huge hidden danger when teams deliberately violate established rules.
Alleged gambling ties are nothing new, but something new emerged on Thursday: The government is actively pursuing figures in the league, namely Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, and former player and coach Damon Jones. The league has suspended Rozier and Billups indefinitely.
FBI Director Kash Patel called the case an "insider trading" scandal in the NBA. Rozier, Porter and a coach - called "Conspirator No. 8" in the indictment, whose identity information highly matches Billups - were all accused of leaking information about player absences. Billups was not charged in the indictment against Rozier, which focused on sports betting, but was charged in a separate indictment involving rigged poker betting. In the case of players involved, they are accused of leaving the game early to deliberately lower their personal performance, thereby promoting the victory of "small score" bets.
With Patel in front of the cameras, the divisive nature of American politics may lead the public to draw a line on the case — although we should all agree that naming part of the sports gambling investigation Operation Nothing But Bet was a clever choice. However, the NBA must not treat this matter as an ordinary problem. This is an existential crisis that may affect the fairness of the game.
The NBA banned Porter for life after an internal investigation, and Porter himself has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Now that Rozier has also been involved in the same criminal gang, the league can no longer excuse it by saying that "this is just an isolated incident in which individual players acted alone to protect themselves." Billups is accused of collaborating with some of New York's most powerful Mafia families to manipulate high-stakes poker games. Although this matter does not directly involve the issue of the game, it will undoubtedly put the league into the negative association it desperately wants to avoid.
In September of this year, when talking about the situation of the Clippers, Silver said that he hoped to prove that the team had salary cap evasion behavior, rather than just "seeming violations." Today, the NBA's credibility is under threat on multiple fronts. Some people speculate that Silver may come to a conclusion sooner than before this news came to light-that is, to impose truly deterrent penalties on the Clippers.
This is reminiscent of the league in the mid-2000s, when commissioner David Stern had to deal with the "Brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills" and referee Tim Donaghy's whistleblowing scandal. We all know how Stern responded: In response to the former, he imposed long-term bans and heavy fines on the players involved; in addition, he also introduced a player dress code that at best missed the core of the problem and at worst was racist. The violence that night in Auburn Hills was more about the players' image than the integrity of the game, but Stern handled it without hesitation.
Referee Donaghy once pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud and passing gambling information through interstate transactions. After reports related to the FBI investigation were exposed, he chose to resign, which saved the league trouble to a certain extent. But that didn't stop Stern from immediately issuing a statement, assuring fans that the league would assist authorities in bringing to justice a man who "betrayed professional sports' most sacred trust" by manipulating score differentials and influencing penalties based on outside bets.
The league subsequently also claimed compensation for wages, benefits and legal fees from Donaghy. Donaghy went on to allege referee manipulation during the controversial Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. These accusations were never proven and sparked a public feud between Stern and Donaghy.
Both incidents were very difficult, but Stern acted decisively. Compared with his predecessor, Silver's behavior is often more prudent and his relationship with league players is more harmonious.. There were previous reports that there were abnormal betting activities during a certain game in 2023. The NBA launched an internal investigation into Rozier at that time, and announced in January this year that it had not found any violation of league rules.
Silver's prudent traits have helped the NBA lay a solid financial foundation, as the latest broadcast agreement is enough to prove this.
He has acted quickly before: When the former majority owners of the Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns were exposed to untenable scandals, Silver pushed for the sale of the two teams. However, those are issues with clear moral dimensions and relatively straightforward handling.
The league is now inextricably linked to the conduct alleged here because it is itself deeply tied to its gambling partners. Silver has said he will work with partners to limit individual bets on players — the kind of bets that are at the heart of the problem — but there’s only so much he can do in that regard. Patel was obviously enthusiastic when he used some NBA figures to scare others; Rozier's lawyer said that the government's arrest of Rozier was just a show, not cooperation with him. Additionally, Silver must ensure that the league is not used solely as a tool to make political statements.
The president of the alliance should be the person at the helm leading the alliance forward. From a playing style perspective, there are deep and legitimate concerns about the current game situation. Now, it is undeniable that people have begun to question the fairness of some game results in the past and present.
If Silver takes too harsh measures in the absence of conclusive evidence, he may alienate league players and may even offend team owners; but if he acts too slowly and too cautiously, it will allow fans' suspicion to continue to spread and intensify.
For Xiao Hua, dealing with this crisis is extremely difficult. But one thing is unquestionable: If people no longer believe that your game is fair and that all teams are playing by the same set of rules, then this league will cease to exist in name only. What started as confusion has now turned into a potential crisis.
Mini-game recommendations:CubeRealm.io