“I have a huge range of disciplinary measures at my disposal, but what he is accused of is a cardinal sin. The last option, the most extreme, is to disqualify him from basketball, and that is the level of authority I have here.” That’s how forceful it was Adam Silver when the sports betting scandal involving Jontay Porter was uncovered.
The Toronto Raptors player, brother of Michael Porter Jr., is the protagonist of the latest ‘brown’ that the NBA has with betting, a problem that it has most likely brought on itself with its constant flirtation with such an important industry and beneficial as well as controversial and dangerous.
On January 26, Porter left a game against the Clippers due to a suspected relapse of an eye injury. On March 20 he left a game against the Kings due to illness after only three minutes on the court. In both games, the sportsbooks received an unusual amount of bets on his points, rebounds, assists and three-pointers, always betting that he would not reach a certain number.
Not even the constant non-sports problems, judicial in many cases and with topics as delicate as gender violence or firearms, with which Adam Silver has had to deal in recent months have posed a situation as difficult as that of betting.
Without a doubt, the best-known case of illegalities in the world of betting in the NBA is the one carried out by Tim Donaghy in 2007. The former referee of the best league in the world was sentenced to 15 months in prison after admitting that he had bet on matches where he himself refereed, influencing the result with his whistle in favor of his own bets.
But Donaghy’s case is, unfortunately, not the only one. The love story between betting and the NBA goes back to its creation, a ghost that has haunted the best league in the world forever and that has ended the careers of several people.
Gene Melchiorre and company
The eight of the first scandal
Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, Norm Mager, Alvin Roth, Gene Melchiorre, Bill Spivey, Ed Warner and Sherman White. Eight prominent players from New York Universities were found guilty of ‘point-shaving’, fraudulently determining the final result of the games in which they played in exchange for money.
Only three of them made their NBA debut, the most famous case being Gene Melchiorre. After shining at Bradley University, he was number one in the 1951 Draft, but he did not get to play with the Bullets since he was banned for life before reaching the NBA.
Sol Levy
It wasn’t just a gamer’s thing.
The previous ‘CCNY point-shaving scandal’ not only involved players and gangsters: there was a referee involved. Sol Levy was found guilty of fixing six games in 1950, for which he was fired and banned for life by the NBA.
Jack Molinas
Quite a boss
One of the darkest figures in American basketball. After four seasons at Columbia University, he reached the NBA after being chosen in third position in the draft by the Pistons. But in 1954, his career came to an end after his illegal betting ring was uncovered, although his illegal implications did not stop there.
In 1961, Molinas once again starred in a betting scandal in college basketball, attracting up to 37 players from 22 different universities for his dirty deals.
He ended up spending 5 years in prison, he dedicated himself to porn movies and the end of his days was the most likely after a life involved in various crimes: murdered by the New York mafia in 1975.
Tim Donaghy
A stain that won’t go away
The case starring Tim Donaghy in 2007 is a ghost that constantly haunts the NBA. The already obviously former referee admitted to having bet on matches that he himself refereed from 2003 to 2007. The accusations about Donaghy went much further than simple bets on matches in which he himself could influence: the investigation ensured that he had links to organized crime .
Donaghy served 15 months in prison but his sentence was not the worst the NBA had to deal with. That one of his employees was behind bars was nothing compared to the doubts that Donaghy himself sowed, which left in the air the possibility that there were others involved in illegal betting… with the complacency of the NBA.
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2024-04-12 08:16:25
#capital #sin #claimed #victim
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