Jontay Porter was banned for life from the NBA on Wednesday after a league investigation found the Toronto Raptors big man disclosed confidential information to sports bettors and wagered on games, even betting on his own team to lose.
Adam Silver's tenure as commissioner of the NBA now includes two people banned for violating league rules. Shortly after taking office in 2014, Silver banned Donald Sterling, who was the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers at the time.
In an NBA release announcing the ban, Silver called Porter's actions "blatant."
"There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter's blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment," Silver said.
The investigation started when the league learned from "licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets" about unusual gambling patterns surrounding Porter's performance in a game against the Sacramento Kings on March 20. The league determined Porter gave a bettor information about his own health status prior to the game, and the league also said another individual — known to be an NBA bettor — placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would not hit the statistical numbers set for him in parlays through an online sports book. That bet would have won $1.1 million.
Porter took himself out of that game after less than three minutes, claiming illness, with none of his stats meeting the totals set in the parlay. The $80,000 bet was frozen and not paid out, the league said, and the NBA started an investigation not long afterward.
"You don't want this for the kid, you don't want this for our team and we don't want this for our league, that's for sure," Masai Ujiri, the team president of the Raptors, said Wednesday in Toronto. "My first reaction is obviously surprise, because none of us, I don't think anybody, saw this coming."
Ujiri spoke shortly before the NBA revealed Porter's ban. After the NBA made its announcement, the Raptors issued a statement saying they were "fully supportive of the league's decision to ban Jontay Porter from the NBA and are grateful for the swift resolution to this investigation. We will continue to cooperate with all ongoing inquiries."
The league has partnerships and other relationships with more than two dozen gaming companies, many of whom advertise during NBA games in a variety of ways. Silver himself has been a longtime proponent of legal sports wagering, but the league has very strict rules for players and employees regarding betting.
And what Porter was found to have done was in violation of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players' union, which states: "Any Player who, directly or indirectly, wagers money or anything of value on any game or event in the Association or in the NBA G League shall, on being charged with such wagering, be given an opportunity to answer such charges after due notice, and the decision of the Commissioner shall be final, binding, and conclusive and unappealable."
Silver cautioned last week that this move was possible, saying what Porter was accused of represented a "cardinal sin" in the NBA. Porter has not commented since the investigation began, and he never played for the Raptors again — he was listed as out for all of Toronto's games for the remainder of the season, with the team citing personal reasons.
The league also determined that the 6-foot-10, 240-pound Porter — the brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. — placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using someone else's betting account. The bets ranged from $15 to $22,000; the total wagered was $54,094 and generated a payout of $76,059, or net winnings of $21,965.
Those wagers did not involve any game in which Porter played, the NBA said, but three of the wagers were multigame parlays, including a bet where Porter — who was not playing in the games involved — wagered on the Raptors to lose. All three of those bets lost.
"While legal sports betting creates transparency that helps identify suspicious or abnormal activity, this matter also raises important issues about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players," Silver said. "Working closely with all relevant stakeholders across the industry, we will continue to work diligently to safeguard our league and game."
Porter was on what is called a two-way contract, meaning he could play for both the Raptors and their affiliate in the G League. His salary for this year was close to $410,000; had the Raptors signed him to a standard NBA contract next season, as seemed possible, his salary would have exceeded $2 million.
The 24-year-old Porter averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games, including five starts. He also played in 11 games for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2020-21 season, having signed as an undrafted free agent after two college seasons at Missouri from 2017-19.
ESPN first reported the investigation, which it said surrounded Porter's performance in games on Jan. 26 and March 20. In both, Porter played briefly before leaving citing injury or illness. Porter played 4 minutes, 24 seconds against the Clippers in the first of those games, then 2:43 against the Kings in the second game.
In both of those games, Porter did not come close to hitting the prop-wager lines for points, rebounds and 3-pointers that bettors could play at some sportsbooks. For example, one set of prop wagers for Porter for the game versus the Clippers was set at 5.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists; he finished with no points, three rebounds and one assist. For the game against the Kings, the numbers were close to 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds; Porter finished that game with no points and two rebounds.
The league said its probe "remains open and may result in further findings," and that those findings are being shared with federal prosecutors.