jowglenn wrote:To give Rozier the benefit of the doubt, I am reading that he played 10 minutes and left with a sore foot. That doesn't mean he intentionally "threw" the game by faking his injury, nor does it mean he intentionally shared this info with someone so they could bet on it. It's entirely possible that he was suffering this foot injury already and they said "well let's get you out there and see how you feel, if it's sore we'll sit you after a bit of run" and any number of people were privy to that info. Rozier himself, of course, but any number of Heat staff, coaches, doctors, other players might well know that Rozier's foot was iffy and he was unlikely to play more than a short stint in that game. And it is possible that someone, knowing that information, fed it to a gambling cutout. But it's also possible they leaked the information unintentionally, and someone who found it out then used that info to place a bet.
I have to think that a lot of people who are connected to the NBA traffic in this kind of info for gambling purposes, and the players themselves don't even need to be in on it. A team doctor, Rozier's friend, his dog walker, his cousin, any one of them could have been chatting with Rozier and he inadvertently lets slip "yeah my foot is feeling a bit better, gonna try to play tomorrow night but probably won't play the full game, just gotta get in there and see how I feel"
Exactly right. There's several of things about this investigation that point away from Rozier intentionally being involved in illegal gambling.
1. Rozier is a high-salary NBA vet. As others have pointed out, why get involved when you make $20 million? Porter on his two-way contract, okay, fine. Rozier? It would take a serious bribe.
2. Yet we've heard there was unusual betting activity in only one game. Hard to imagine even the dumbest illegal gamblers could both (a) bribe Rozier enough to make it worth his while and (b) make a profit on a single under parlay. Remember, for Porter, the idiot who got him caught bet $80k on a low odds parlay that would have made him over a million (and of course the casino refused to cash the bet after Porter left the game).
3. Adding to number 2, in Porter's case there were only a couple of people who bribed Porter and then tried to make a ton of cash. Not what happened in the Rozier game. In that game, bunches of people took the under and won smaller amounts. Some were even posting on X, bragging that they knew he would sit out and showing bet slips where they made $100. The dude bragging on X that he made $100 is *not* part of a conspiracy. If he was part of a conspiracy, he would have bet more and he wouldn't have posted about it.
All that makes me think that the real target of the investigation is someone close to Rozier who leaked information. One very likely scenario: Rozier told a friend "my foot's injured and stubborn Steve Clifford wants me to play 40 minutes for a 27-win team. Hell no. Just watch. I'm leaving the game the first time I feel something in my foot." Then the friend or family member sells the information for money, or, more likely tells a bunch of other idiots who tell more idiots and suddenly rando FanDuel gamblers are making $100 bucks on tiny bets.
