Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA on Wednesday, and the biggest factor in the decision is that the Toronto Raptors center committed what is widely considered to be the cardinal sin of an athlete gambling on games.
The NBA has announced that Porter is banned from the league for life following an investigation into suspicious gambling activity. The investigation began last month when officials were alerted to irregularities with prop bets involving Porter.
It was determined that Porter disclosed confidential information about his own health status to a person he knew to be an NBA bettor. That information was then used by an individual associated with Porter who placed an $80,000 parlay with a potential payout of $1.1 million that Porter would underperform in a specific game.
That was not the worst of it, however. According to the NBA’s investigation, Porter committed the cardinal sin of betting on his own team to lose. The 24-year-old was found to have placed 13 bets of his own with a total payout $76,059. His net winnings were $21,965. Three of the bets were parlays that had a leg involving the Raptors. In at least one of those parlays, Porter picked the Raptors to lose.
Investigation shows on the 13 NBA bets Porter made: Total payout was $76,059, resulting in net winnings of $21,965. Three of the bets were multi-game parlay bets that included one Raptors game, in which Porter bet that the Raptors would lose. https://t.co/U3p7sdeSX0
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 17, 2024
Adam Silver said last week that Porter was accused of committing a “cardinal sin,” and that is undoubtedly what the NBA commissioner was referring to. A player betting on his own team or providing inside information is bad enough. Any time a player or coach gets into betting against their own team, that leads to questions about throwing games.
Pete Rose had his legacy tarnished years ago and was banned from baseball after it was determined that he bet on his former team, the Cincinnati Reds. The one thing Rose has always been able to say is that he never bet on his team to lose. By doing so, Porter made the NBA’s decision even easier.
