According to The Wall Street Journal, Rozier is being investigated for his performance in a game on March 23, 2023, when he was playing for the Hornets. In the hours leading up to the game, there were unusual prop bets made that Rozier would fail to reach certain statistical benchmarks, raising alarms about potential suspicious activity.
Sportsbooks and the NBA were alerted, and some books stopped taking bets related to Rozier’s performance that day.
After recording five points, four rebounds and two assists in nine minutes and 34 seconds of action in the first quarter, Rozier exited the game during a timeout and did not return, citing a foot issue. He did not play the final eight games of the 2022-23 season due to the injury.
Rozier has not yet been charged with a crime or accused of wrongdoing, and the expectation is that he’ll continue to suit up for the Heat as the investigation unfolds, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“In March 2023, the NBA was alerted to unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozier’s performance in a game between Charlotte and New Orleans,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rules. We are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation.”
“We are aware of the NBA’s 2023 investigation which determined there was absolutely no wrongdoing by Mr. Rozier and we are confident that the on-going government investigation will arrive at the exact same conclusion,” Rozier’s attorney Jim Trusty told ESPN.com.
The investigation into Rozier is part of the same government probe which saw former Raptors big man Jontay Porter
plead guilty to a federal felony charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Following an investigation, Porter was banned from the NBA for violating league rules “by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.”
“Authorities believe some of the people who arranged for Porter to fix his performance in two games last season had inside information that prompted them to bet large sums of money against Rozier a year earlier,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
