NBA Bans Raptors Player Jontay Porter for Life: A Career Destroyed by Illegal Bets

Harshest possible punishment: NBA bans Raptors professional Porter for life

April 18, 2024, 5:47 a.m

He doesn’t have a big name in the NBA yet – and he can’t earn one anymore: The NBA has banned Jontay Porter for life. The 24-year-old gambled away the prospect of a million-dollar salary with illegal bets on his own performance.

Basketball professional Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors has been banned for life by the NBA because he even bet on his own team’s games. The league was reacting to weeks of investigations against the 24-year-old, who, in addition to several violations of NBA rules, is accused of betting fraud. He is alleged to have disclosed confidential information, restricted his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and bet on NBA games.

“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 flagrant violations of our rules of the game will be met with the harshest possible punishment.” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, according to the statement.

Before the Raptors’ game against the Sacramento Kings, Porter allegedly gave confidential information about his status for the game to people he knew were betting on the NBA. As a result, one of the people is said to have bet $80,000 on poor performance by Porter – with an expected profit of $1.1 million. Porter only played three minutes in the game and then said he wasn’t feeling well. The bet was frozen and not paid out due to unusual betting behavior.

It also came to light that Porter, the brother of Michael Porter Jr. of the Denver Nuggets, placed bets on NBA games at least 13 times using someone else’s betting account. Bet amounts ranged from $15,000 to $22,000. Porter made $21,965 in profit on the bets.

Not in use for weeks

“You don’t want this for the kid, you don’t want this for our team and you don’t want this for our league,” Raptors president Masaj Ujiri said shortly before the NBA decision was announced. “My first reaction was of course surprise. None of us and I don’t think anyone else saw this coming.” Dennis Schröder’s former team, who played for Toronto until the beginning of February, later released a statement and emphasized that they fully supported the NBA’s decision. “We are grateful for the quick resolution of this investigation. We will continue to cooperate with inquiries.”

Porter had a contract for the current season with permission to play in both the NBA and the development league, the G League. His salary was around $410,000. If he had gotten a regular NBA contract for the coming season, he would have earned at least $2 million. Porter averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games this season. He was in the starting lineup five times. He has not been used since March 20th.

2024-04-18 03:47:00
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