The NBA has asked several teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, to turn over documents and other property as part of its investigation into illegal sports gambling, six league sources said. Athletics.
The league, under the control of Congress, is seeking new information based on federal charges filed last month by the Justice Department.
House and Senate committees last month asked the NBA why it did not uncover credible evidence that players and coaches participated in a scheme to use private information to help bettors make money after Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were arrested and charged last month. NBA officials argued before a congressional committee that the league was taking the accusations seriously and, through outside law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, began contacting teams to request, among other things, access to cell phones.
Following accusations against Damon Jones, a former NBA player and LeBron James’ former shooting coach who had special access to the Lakers, Wachtell investigators are expected to seek documents, including cellphone and telephone records, from at least 10 Lakers employees, league sources said. Athletics. According to league sources, Lakers assistant coach Mike Mancias and executive administrator Randy Mims are among the already cooperating employees who have voluntarily turned over their cell phones to investigators.
Mancias and Mims are employed by the Lakers because of their ties to James. The new review is expected to examine their relationship with Jones.
“The NBA retained an independent law firm to investigate the allegations contained in the indictment once it was made public,” an NBA spokesperson said. Athletics in a statement. “As is the norm in this type of investigation, a number of different people and organizations have been asked to preserve documents and records. Everyone has been fully cooperative.”
James, Mancias and Mims have neither been charged with a crime nor even mentioned by name in a federal charging document, but Jones was arrested last month and is accused of selling private injury information to players regarding two star Lakers players. Prosecutors say Jones on one occasion used information disclosed to him by a team coach.
Jones pleaded not guilty during an appearance at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn earlier this month. Mancias, 48, has been James’ personal trainer for about 20 years, and Mims, 50, has been close to James since James was a high school star in Akron, Ohio.
The government, in charging Jones for his role in the alleged illegal betting scheme, said he sold injury information about two Lakers stars to bettors on at least two occasions. Jones, according to the indictment, was a teammate or coach “of a prominent NBA player” whom he called Player 3. It said Jones used his relationship with that player and the team to obtain information that he then sold to professional players.
Jones, according to prosecutors, discovered on the morning of Feb. 9, 2023, that Player 3 would not play in the Lakers’ game against the Bucks that evening and told an anonymous co-conspirator to place a “big bet” on the Bucks because Player 3 was absent. Player 3 had not yet been named on the team’s injury report, but he would miss the game. James did not play in this game.
On January 15, 2024, Jones allegedly sold information that a “Player 4” had been injured and that his performance in the upcoming game against the Oklahoma City Thunder would be affected. The feds said Jones “claimed to have learned from the coach of ‘Player 3’ and ‘Player 4’ that ‘Player 4’ had been injured.”
At least two team executives from organizations mentioned in the charges against Jones and Rozier have been informed by the league of an ongoing investigation, league sources said.
The NBA had already opened an investigation into former Raptors two-way player Jontay Porter, kicking him out of the league in April 2024 for participating in a betting scheme, as well as Rozier, who the league could not prove had violated its rules. Federal prosecutors said Rozier, then a member of the Charlotte Hornets, planned to withdraw early from a March 2023 game so players could bet against him to achieve certain statistics, then did so.
While the league investigated Rozier at the time, he was ultimately allowed to continue playing. He played in 125 more NBA games before being arrested and charged last month. Rozier was placed on unpaid leave by the NBA days after the charges were filed, although the NBPA appealed. The NBA shared the results of its investigation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York the winter after he first came under suspicion and while he was under federal investigation.
Other teams that have been named in federal charges for illegal betting activities surrounding their games include the Orlando Magic. According to the government, a Magic “regularly starting player” told a player that the team planned to “tank,” or sit its starters, during an April 2023 game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The player allegedly sold the information to other bettors known to bet against the Magic.
The Magic have not been contacted by the Justice Department, a league source said, but the unnamed Orlando player named in the indictment is no longer with the team. The Magic’s statement, released when those sweeping accusations were filed in October, indicated that the player mentioned was considered to be with the organization, and the NBA approved the team’s statement before it was released, league sources said.
Illegal bets were also placed against the Portland Trail Blazers, and the information to bettors was passed on by a “coach” whose description closely matched that of Billups, although Billups was not accused of sharing information with players. Instead, Billups was charged, along with Jones, with participating in a scheme to defraud card players in illegal poker games.
Additionally, according to league sources, the NBA is moving toward substantial changes to team rules for reporting player injury statuses amid the fallout from the ongoing betting scandal. In theory, the incidents surrounding the Lakers, Magic and Blazers could have been avoided with stricter rules governing when players must be declared injured in publicly released information.
Jones’ role as the Lakers’ unofficial coach was authorized because of his history with James as a teammate and friend. He was very present in the locker rooms and on team planes, even though he had no official accreditation. His participation in team card games even led to the group’s 3-point celebration – “the freeze” – mimicking the way Jones pretended to show off a badge while saying “Freeze, Miami Vice” before winning a pot.
Jones’ unofficial role with the Lakers ended after one season.
Mancias, Mims and Jones are the latest James associates to find themselves in a gambling investigation, albeit a separate one. Maverick Carter, James’ main business manager, was a bookmaker’s client who pleaded guilty. to federal charges that he was part of an offshore betting ring. Carter was interviewed as part of the investigation into bookmaker Wayne Nix, Athletics reported in 2023 and accused of making false statements to investigators, according to court filings, although he later clarified them and was not charged.
Athletic Reporter Dan Woike contributed to this story.
