Browsing: Rozier

• Paula Lavigne

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  Paula Lavigne

  ESPN Investigative Reporter

  • Data analyst and reporter for ESPN’s Enterprise and Investigative Unit.
  • Winner, 2014 Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award; finalist, 2012 IRE broadcast award; winner, 2011 Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism; Emmy nominated, 2009.

• David Purdum

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  David Purdum

  ESPN Staff Writer

  • Joined ESPN in 2014
  • Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008

Oct 28, 2025, 04:41 PM ET

The same year Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was alleged to have manipulated his performance in an NBA game as part of gambling schemes, he was facing an $8 million tax lien from the Internal Revenue Service, according to county clerk records obtained by ESPN.

The IRS filed the $8,218,211 federal income tax lien in Broward County, Florida, where Rozier has a residence, in November 2023. The lien would have been filed after past due notices were sent to the taxpayer, according to Florida tax attorney Steven N. Klitzner.

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to them,” he said.

ESPN has contacted Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty of Ifrah Law, for comment.

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According to a federal indictment unsealed last Thursday, Rozier is accused of providing nonpublic information about his plans to leave a March 2023 game early to a friend, Deniro Laster, who then sold it to bettors for about $100,000. Rozier played just over nine minutes before leaving the game, citing a foot injury.

Rozier paid for Laster to travel to Philadelphia to collect the proceeds from the scheme, according to the indictment, before driving to Rozier’s home to count the money with him.

Rozier and Laster were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They were among 34 defendants arrested last week in two sweeping federal gambling investigations.

Trusty said in a statement at the time that his client is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.”

The NBA put Rozier on leave after the indictment became public. The league investigated Rozier in 2023 after suspicious prop bets were placed on the unders on his statistics in the game but found at the time that he had not violated league rules. Last week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that Rozier had cooperated with the NBA’s investigation and the league “ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence, despite that aberrational behavior.”

The IRS has 30 days to file a lien release after a debt has been paid. There is no lien release on record, according to the county clerk’s office. No one from the IRS responded to emails from ESPN seeking further information on whether one was pending.

The address on the tax lien corresponds to a company in California incorporated in 2024 called GMB Chronicles, which also lists Rozier as an officer and holds the trademark rights to his nickname, “Scary Terry.”

Records from Broward County also showed a construction lien filed against Rozier in August 2022 for about $271,000, of which $250,000 was paid by July 2023. The lien was for a variety of work being done on his $5.3 million property on the western side of the county.

Rozier signed a four-year, $96.3 million contract with the Charlotte Hornets on Aug. 24, 2021, and then was traded to Miami on Jan. 23, 2024. Including this season, Rozier has a career $161.7 million in on-court earnings.

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Oct 24, 2025, 02:50 PM ET

The reality began setting in for the Miami Heat on Friday when they gathered for a morning shootaround practice and Terry Rozier wasn’t with the team.

And that almost certainly won’t change anytime soon.

Rozier has been placed on indefinite leave by the NBA after he was arrested Thursday by federal agents and charged for his alleged role in a scheme in which prosecutors say he conspired with friends to help them win bets they made based on his performance in a March 2023 game when he was with the Charlotte Hornets.

“You support him through and through,” Heat captain Bam Adebayo said in Memphis, Tennessee, before Miami’s game against the Grizzlies. “That’s our brother at the end of the day. It felt kind of weird without him being here, actually, because he’s the first person I get to talk to in the morning. He brings that great energy to our team.”

Billups, Rozier among 34 arrested by FBI

Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were arrested as part of a pair of wide-ranging investigations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia, authorities announced.

• FAQ: What we know about the cases
• Timeline: Sports betting scandals since 2018
• Wetzel: True cost of sports betting
• From 2024: Jontay Porter banned for life

Adebayo made clear how the team still feels about Rozier.

“We stand behind him,” Adebayo said. “Full support.”

The Heat are now searching for ways to move on, much like how the Portland Trail Blazers must do without coach Chauncey Billups — also arrested Thursday and placed on leave for his alleged involvement in another gambling scheme.

“Terry is somebody who is very dear to all of us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s had a real positive impact on our locker room, and the staff and players alike, and that includes last year, when he wasn’t in the rotation often times. We send our thoughts and our care for him as he goes through this.”

Rozier, through his attorney, has denied any wrongdoing. The Heat aren’t commenting on the legal part of the case, nor are the Hornets, the team that Rozier was with during the March 23, 2023, game in question.

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Rozier was in the starting lineup for Charlotte and played reasonably well in his 9½ minutes of action, with five points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. That remains one of only two times in his career that he had that many points, rebounds and assists in a first quarter.

He cited foot pain as his reason for not returning to that game and sat out the final eight Charlotte games that season. The Hornets had already been eliminated from playoff contention, and it’s not uncommon for players — even those with minor injuries — to be held out of inconsequential games toward the end of a season.

But Rozier had allegedly told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, who has also been indicted, that he would pull himself from the game. Laster allegedly sold the information to two bettors for about $100,000. Those bettors, along with their associates and a network of proxy bettors, used the info to bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on Rozier’s unders, according to the indictment.

Rozier paid for Laster to travel to Philadelphia to collect the proceeds from the scheme, according to the indictment, and then drove to Rozier’s home to count the money with him.

The Heat met as a team Thursday, hours after Rozier was arrested by federal authorities in Orlando, Florida, and spent part of that session discussing how best to support their teammate.

“That’s our brother,” forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “We’ve had a lot of time with him. You know, see what happens. There’s a lot of stuff that we don’t know. Just waiting for more information to come out.”

Rozier was not in the rotation for Miami’s season-opening game in Orlando on Wednesday. He was in uniform and on the bench, eligible to play if the Heat decided they needed him. There was no indication that night that any new legal trouble was looming.

By the time the team left Orlando on Thursday, it was obvious that Rozier wouldn’t be with the club again for some time. The challenge now for the Heat, Spoelstra said, is to figure out how to move forward.

“You’re left with no other choice,” Spoelstra said. “The league doesn’t wait. It doesn’t stop for you. … You have to learn how to compartmentalize and focus on the most immediate thing. And that’s preparing for an important game tonight.”

ESPN’s David Purdum and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA guard Damon Jones were arrested Thursday as part of an FBI investigation into illegal sports betting and allegedly rigged poker games.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked Friday night about Thursday’s arrests:

In a press conference on Thursday, FBI director Kash Patel announced the arrests of Rozier, Billups and Jones in relation to an “illegal gambling operation and sports-rigging operation that spanned the course of years.”

Billups and Rozier were placed on immediate leave, the NBA said in a statement. Tiago Splitter will assume coaching duties in Billups’ absence, the Blazers announced.

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said that Rozier is a defendant in the NBA gambling case, which was an investigation the NBA cooperated with, while Billups is a defendant in the poker case. Jones is a defendant in both cases.

In total, six people have been charged in the alleged sports gambling scheme, while there are 31 defendants in the illegal poker case.

Regarding the NBA betting case, Nocella said bets were placed based on “inside, non-public information” such as when players would miss future games or when players would pull themselves out of games early due to injury or illness.

“The non-public information included when specific players would be sitting out future games, or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses,” Nocella said, per CNN.

“They also misused information obtained through long-standing friendships that they had with NBA players and coaches, and in at least one instance, they got their information by threatening a current player—(Jontay) Porter—because of his preexisting gambling bets. Defendants used this non-public information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, mostly in the form of prop bets on individual player performance. The bets were placed through online sports books and also in person at casinos.”

Per CNN’s Mark Morales and Kara Scannell, FBI officials alleged that Rozier provided that type of information to sports bettors and faked an injury nine minutes into one game to benefit the betting ring.

New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch expanded on the allegation, noting that bettors involved with the case wagered more than $200,000 on the under for multiple statistical prop bets involving Rozier for a game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans:

“One example occurred on March 23, 2023, in Charlotte. Terry Rozier, an NBA player now with the Miami Heat, but at the time playing for the Hornets, allegedly let others close to him know that he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury.

“Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers on his ‘under’ statistics. Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit. The proceeds were later delivered to his home, where the group counted their cash. As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity.”

Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, released a statement to Morales and Scannell regarding his client’s arrest:

“We have represented Terry Rozier for over a year. A long time ago we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication. They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel.

“[Authorities] appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”

Billups’ attorney Chris Heywood also released a statement, stating they will be fighting the FBI’s charges:

With regard to the poker case in which Billups and Jones were named, Nocella said the defendants “orchestrated a scheme to use wireless cheating technology” to run rigged poker games in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami and Manhattan.

Per CNN’s Kyle Feldscher, Nocella further explained the alleged operation, saying Billups was utilized as a “face card,” which is a professional athlete who would sit alongside players and use their star power in order to distract them from the game.

Aside from the alleged victims, Nocella said, everyone was in on the plan, including the dealer, other players and the face cards, resulting in the victims losing “tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.”

Nocella continued by saying there were other tactics allegedly used by the defendants, such as rigged shuffling machines and other forms of technology:

“For example, they used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information to an off-site operator. The off-site operator sent the information via cellphone back to a co-conspirator at the table, and that person at the table was known as the quarterback.

“The quarterback then signaled secretly the information he had received from others to others at the table, and together, they use that information in order to win their games and to cheat the victims. Defendants used other cheating technologies such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera, special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards and an X-ray table that could read cards face down on the table.”

The NBA has been attempting to crack down on suspicious gambling ever since handing down a lifetime ban to Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter last year.

A league investigation determined that Porter illegally disclosed health information to a bettor before a game, prompting an $80,000 parlay to be placed on Porter’s statistical props.

Porter left the game after only three minutes of action because of illness, but due to the circumstances, the parlay was frozen and not paid out.

Porter later pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in connection to the gambling case.

During an appearance Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show (h/t ESPN’s Doug Greenberg and David Purdum), NBA commissioner Adam Silver expressed his desire for more regulation of sports betting, particularly from the federal government.

“I think, probably, there should be more regulation, frankly,” Silver said. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”

Rozier, 31, is in his 11th NBA season and his third as a member of the Heat after they acquired him in a trade with the Hornets during the 2023-24 season.

Originally selected 16th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2015 NBA draft out of Louisville, Rozier has appeared in 665 career regular-season games, averaging 13.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest.

Per Spotrac, Rozier has earned just over $160 million during his playing career.

In 64 games with the Heat last season, Rozier averaged 10.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

Despite dressing for the game, Rozier did not play in the Heat’s 125-121, season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.

Billups, 49, has been the Blazers’ head coach since 2021, posting a 117-212 record with no playoff appearances.

He is best known for his Hall of Fame playing career with the Celtics, Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers from 1997 to 2014.

Nicknamed “Mr. Big Shot” due to his penchant for coming through in the clutch, Billups was a five-time All-Star, and he was named NBA Finals MVP in 2004 when he led the Pistons to a championship.

Billups earned nearly $107 million during his playing career, according to Spotrac, and he signed a multiyear coaching contract extension with the Blazers in April.

On Wednesday, Billups coached the Blazers to a 118-114, season-opening loss to the T-Wolves.

The 49-year-old Jones was an NBA guard for 11 seasons from 1998 to 2009, playing for the New Jersey Nets, Celtics, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Vancouver Grizzlies, Pistons, Sacramento Kings, Milwaukee Bucks, Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Jones also served as an assistant coach with the Cavs from 2016 to 2018, winning an NBA championship during that tenure. In 657 regular-season games played, Jones averaged 6.6 points, 2.7 assists and 1.6 rebounds per contest.

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Oct 23, 2025, 07:47 AM ET

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday as part of a pair of investigations related to illegal gambling, FBI director Kash Patel announced.

The Billups and Rozier arrests were among more than 30 people arrested as part of a yearslong investigation covering 11 states, Patel said.

Rozier was arrested Thursday morning at a hotel in Orlando, Florida. The Heat lost their season opener to the Magic on Wednesday, when Rozier did not play due to a coach’s decision.

Billups’ arrest in Oregon was made as part of a separate but related illegal gambling case linked to an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia, according to an ABC News report. Billups is expected to make an initial court appearance later Thursday.

Also, former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones was arrested Thursday. He allegedly provided inside information about NBA games to co-defendants who used it to place sports bets, according to ABC News. Jones, 49, played for 10 NBA teams over an 11-year career from 1998 to 2009 and was a Cavaliers assistant from 2016 to 2018.

Sportsbooks in multiple states flagged suspicious betting interest on Rozier’s statistics ahead of a Charlotte Hornets-New Orleans Pelicans game on March 23, 2023. An unexpected surge of bets — including 30 wagers in 46 minutes from a professional bettor totaling $13,759 — came in on the under on Rozier’s points, rebounds and assists, causing sportsbooks to halt betting on the veteran guard. Rozier, then with the Hornets, played just 10 minutes before leaving the game, citing a foot injury.

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Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, previously told ESPN that his client met with NBA and FBI officials multiple times in 2023. The NBA said it looked into the matter at the time and did not find that any league rules were broken.

Other details of the Billups case were not immediately available. Billups has served as the Trail Blazers’ coach since 2021 and was on the sideline for their season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He is an NBA champion and was a Finals MVP as a player with the Detroit Pistons, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.

Rozier, 31, is in the final season of a four-year, $96.3 million contract he signed with the Hornets in August 2021. The March 23, 2023, game was Rozier’s last of the 2022-23 season with the Hornets, who traded him to the Heat in January 2024.

His case stems from the betting scandal involving former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter, who was banned from the NBA in the spring of 2024 for his role in a gambling scheme around player prop bets. Porter pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and admitted in court to manipulating his performance in two games during the 2023-24 season. He is awaiting sentencing in December.

Four men, including Porter, have pleaded guilty in the case. Two other men have been named as conspirators and have been in plea negotiations, according to court filings.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, said the league has been working with its sportsbook partners to combat attempts at manipulation.

“We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver said. “We’re trying to put in place — learning as we go and working with the betting companies — some additional control to prevent some of that manipulation.”

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The Charlotte Hornets have canceled a sports betting theme night with former guard Terry Rozier linked to a federal gambling…