Raptors' Porter Gets NBA Life Ban for Breaking League Rules 

Summary:

• An NBA investigation has found Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter guilty of breaching league rules.
• Porter was found guilty of disclosing confidential information and manipulating games for sports betting purposes.
• The player was slapped with a ban for life from the NBA. 

Toronto Raptors’s Jontay Porter received a life ban from the NBA on Wednesday after a league investigation revealed he placed sports bets on games, including wagers against his team, and shared confidential information with other bettors. 

Porter joins LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the only other person to receive the ban by Commissioner Adam Silver for violations of the league rules in 2014.

“Blatant Violations” 

Commissioner Silver described Porter’s actions as “blatant violations” of the gaming rules.

Further emphasizing the critical importance of “protecting the integrity of NBA competition” for fans, teams, and everyone associated with the sport, Silver argued why his actions were “met with the most severe punishment“.

The investigation was initiated after the league found out about a series of irregular gambling behaviors surrounding Jontay Porter‘s performance in the game against Sacramento on March 20. 

The league established the player revealed information about his health status to a bettor before the start of the game. 

Moreover, a different NBA bettor placed an $80,000 bet that the player would fail to hit the numbers set for him in parlays through a chosen online sportsbook. 

The respective bet would have won him $1.1 million.

Porter claimed he was ill and exited the game by himself after less than three minutes on the court. 

Accordingly, none of his stats met the totals that were set in the parlay. 

The $80,000 bet was frozen and never paid out, according to the league. Shortly after, the NBA initiated the investigation.

“None of Us Saw This Coming”

The team’s president, Masai Ujiri spoke shortly before the big ban announcement, describing his initial reaction as one of “surprise, because none of us, I don’t think anybody, saw this coming“.

Once the ban was made public, the Raptors expressed their support for the decision and expressed gratefulness “for the swift resolution”.

The league established that Porter, who is Denver Nuggets’ forward Michael Porter Jr.‘s brother, placed a minimum of 13 bets on NBA games with the help of a different person’s betting account. 

His bets ranged from $15 to $22,000 and the total that he wagered reached $54,094, with a $76,059 payout and $21,965 net winnings.