Vorkunov: Gambling Investigation Involves April 6, 2023 Cavs-Magic Game

[AdamTheGreek]

Mike Vorkunov on socials:

NBA tanking comes up in the DOJ's indictment. Information on who wouldn't play in a March 24, 2023 Blazers game and that all Magic starters wouldn't play in April 6, 2023 game — which came from a Magic player with a relationship to a defendant — were used to bet on.

If you saw the DOJ/FBI presser, they had a graphic of the NBA games investigated where they found evidence of at least one of the accused tied to some type of insider info tipping off.
For Cavs-Magic April 6, 2023, one name was listed. ‘FAIRLEY’, which is in reference to Marves Fairley (who hopefully just coincidentally Desmond Bane currently follows on Instagram).
Fairley is a gambler from Mississippi. Since it was Cavs-Magic, going to assume this was a Damon Jones related game.

Here’s the box score of that game:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202304060ORL.html

I’m not going to make any guesses of who the 2022-2023 Magic player could’ve been.

I’m creating the topic because I imagine investigators and reporters will further look into this.

Here is everyone who was on the ‘22-‘23 roster: https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ORL/2023.html
Also keep in mind, guys like Hampton and Ross were on other teams by then.

And just because this elaborate press conference happened, does not necessarily mean that all folks named are guilty of anything or everything discussed.

But gambling is and always will be a messy thing to go into business with. This as Kia Center is getting a lot of Hard Rock betting related additions.

[dsg2021]

Mike Vorkunov on socials:

NBA tanking comes up in the DOJ's indictment. Information on who wouldn't play in a March 24, 2023 Blazers game and that all Magic starters wouldn't play in April 6, 2023 game — which came from a Magic player with a relationship to a defendant — were used to bet on.

If you saw the DOJ/FBI presser, they had a graphic of the NBA games investigated where they found evidence of at least one of the accused tied to some type of insider info tipping off.
For Cavs-Magic April 6, 2023, one name was listed. ‘FAIRLEY’, which is in reference to Marves Fairley (who hopefully just coincidentally Desmond Bane currently follows on Instagram).
Fairley is a gambler from Mississippi. Since it was Cavs-Magic, going to assume this was a Damon Jones related game.

Here’s the box score of that game:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202304060ORL.html

I’m not going to make any guesses of who the 2022-2023 Magic player could’ve been.

I’m creating the topic because I imagine investigators and reporters will further look into this.

Here is everyone who was on the ‘22-‘23 roster: https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ORL/2023.html
Also keep in mind, guys like Hampton and Ross were on other teams by then.

And just because this elaborate press conference happened, does not necessarily mean that all folks named are guilty of anything or everything discussed.

But gambling is and always will be a messy thing to go into business with. This as Kia Center is getting a lot of Hard Rock betting related additions.

This AdamTheGreek post is sponsored by Fanduel Betting, Hard Rock Betting, and DraftKings Betting.

Join now for 50% extra on your first Deposit amount.

[three3d]

All I needed from WCJ last night was 9 points and 9 boards to nail my parlay that would have turned $15 into $140 lol. But seriously all sports across the board opened this Pandora’s box making sports betting became mainstream and put in some cross eyed looks at everything from players effort to the refereeing of a game. Some were out there Tim Donagy is rolling over laughing and saying I told you so.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Wait, is one of our players involved in this?

[SHAQ32]

Mike Vorkunov on socials:

NBA tanking comes up in the DOJ's indictment. Information on who wouldn't play in a March 24, 2023 Blazers game and that all Magic starters wouldn't play in April 6, 2023 game — which came from a Magic player with a relationship to a defendant — were used to bet on.

If you saw the DOJ/FBI presser, they had a graphic of the NBA games investigated where they found evidence of at least one of the accused tied to some type of insider info tipping off.
For Cavs-Magic April 6, 2023, one name was listed. ‘FAIRLEY’, which is in reference to Marves Fairley (who hopefully just coincidentally Desmond Bane currently follows on Instagram).
Fairley is a gambler from Mississippi. Since it was Cavs-Magic, going to assume this was a Damon Jones related game.

Here’s the box score of that game:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202304060ORL.html

I’m not going to make any guesses of who the 2022-2023 Magic player could’ve been.

I’m creating the topic because I imagine investigators and reporters will further look into this.

Here is everyone who was on the ‘22-‘23 roster: https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ORL/2023.html
Also keep in mind, guys like Hampton and Ross were on other teams by then.

And just because this elaborate press conference happened, does not necessarily mean that all folks named are guilty of anything or everything discussed.

But gambling is and always will be a messy thing to go into business with. This as Kia Center is getting a lot of Hard Rock betting related additions.

This AdamTheGreek post is sponsored by Fanduel Betting, Hard Rock Betting, and DraftKings Betting.

Join now for 50% extra on your first Deposit amount.

(If you have a gambling problem dial 1-800-BETS)

[pepe1991]

Whole league and even some teams are sponsored or even owned by gambling firms
And everybody acts shocked when they find out games are fixed and players & coaches want part of cake...

Problem with NBA is how incompetent Silver has been about everything.

[tooler]

Wait, is one of our players involved in this?

An Orlando Magic player (“Player 2” in the indictment) was involved in an unwitting sense. In that they mentioned something to someone but had no idea it would be used for sports betting, unlike the allegations against some of the big names here where they tipped people off in exchange for a cut or whatever. What they said could’ve been completely benign, like man my foot hurts today. Who knows.

We have no idea if that player is still on the team. Let’s hope not. We don’t need the distraction.

The Billups involvement in rigged poker games sounds scary to my virgin ears. He was setting up big gamblers so the mafia could scam them. If the allegations are true, I presume he was in debt to the mob or something. I can’t imagine he’d do that just for a cut.

[Bensational]

Dunno if you can credibly investigate “rigging” in the league if you aren’t going to investigate how Dallas scored that #1 pick after giving Luka away for pennies on the dollar.

[tooler]

I saw on OMD they refer to it as a “starter” telling a former player he would not be playing that night. (Again, this was unwitting, although the NBA may have rules about sharing non-public information.)

The starters the prior game were Paolo, Franz, WCJ, Fultz, and Gary Harris. But there were many other players that started a game that season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the term was being used loosely. So who knows.

[bigdogdylan5]

Magic released a statement saying they believe no current players were involved. So probably Harris or Fultz. I find it incredibly dumb we are mentioned in this.

[RookieStar]

Wait... so were we involved or not?

[SOUL]

Wait... so were we involved or not?

Who is "we" lol - the Magic are implicitly stated. As far as it being an active player, the Magic have addressed that. Either way, if it was an offhanded comment of mentioning that we're resting players, it's less of a sticky situation than actively betting on the sport.

[RichCollab]

So we allow teams to essentially throw games all the time on purpose by tanking. It’s for the organizations benefit? Now tie in betting sponsors every where.

Players colluding is a major problem but it’s openly ok to tank and reap benefits.

[cedric76]

Dunno if you can credibly investigate “rigging” in the league if you aren’t going to investigate how Dallas scored that #1 pick after giving Luka away for pennies on the dollar.

Familiar with odds and maths?

NBA lottery is NOT rigged

[SOUL]

Dunno if you can credibly investigate “rigging” in the league if you aren’t going to investigate how Dallas scored that #1 pick after giving Luka away for pennies on the dollar.

Familiar with odds and maths?

NBA lottery is NOT rigged

I agree with this. They record it behind the scenes as well with every owner in attendance of the lottery drawing of the balls. It would require EVERY single owner to agree that Dallas should get the #1 pick.. and if you believe they did that, then there's no point of even watching the NBA because then it would be compromised by owners not caring if their team wins or not.

Now, the Ewing 'Frozen Envelope' with the bent corner...

[Bensational]

Dunno if you can credibly investigate “rigging” in the league if you aren’t going to investigate how Dallas scored that #1 pick after giving Luka away for pennies on the dollar.

Familiar with odds and maths?

NBA lottery is NOT rigged

I agree with this. They record it behind the scenes as well with every owner in attendance of the lottery drawing of the balls. It would require EVERY single owner to agree that Dallas should get the #1 pick.. and if you believe they did that, then there's no point of even watching the NBA because then it would be compromised by owners not caring if their team wins or not.

Now, the Ewing 'Frozen Envelope' with the bent corner...

You mean billionaires might value their investment differently to the fans of their teams, and be prepared to have a losing product if the asset itself grows in value?

If we’re going to talk odds and maths, someone should calculate the odds of teams losing their franchise players and then receiving a top 3 draft pick within the next 2 years - regardless of whether they have the best odds or 14th best. I’m sure we’ll see a pattern that defies the odds.

[SOUL]

Familiar with odds and maths?

NBA lottery is NOT rigged

I agree with this. They record it behind the scenes as well with every owner in attendance of the lottery drawing of the balls. It would require EVERY single owner to agree that Dallas should get the #1 pick.. and if you believe they did that, then there's no point of even watching the NBA because then it would be compromised by owners not caring if their team wins or not.

Now, the Ewing 'Frozen Envelope' with the bent corner...

You mean billionaires might value their investment differently to the fans of their teams, and be prepared to have a losing product if the asset itself grows in value?

If we’re going to talk odds and maths, someone should calculate the odds of teams losing their franchise players and then receiving a top 3 draft pick within the next 2 years - regardless of whether they have the best odds or 14th best. I’m sure we’ll see a pattern that defies the odds.

I mean, that would imply that the NBA has always been rigged with the owners though. I guarantee you every single season you can make a realistic argument for why X team got a specific player which will benefit them and why the NBA rigged it for them.

Keep in mind, the odds itself changed a few years ago so it wasn't so top heavy - this was to dissuade tanking teams from tanking. Now people are screaming that it's rigged because the odds are working against the worst teams as intended.

Going on Tankathon and pressing the button once also gives you wildly different results.

Yes, there were teams that won hometown hero players like LeBron or Rose that look "odd", but you also had a team in New York that was irrelevant for 20 years, a second LA team that horrific until the 2010s, and a market in Golden State that wasn't relevant for 15+ years. Surely if the bottom line was about asset value, you wouldn't even attempt to let teams like Washington or Memphis or New Orleans gets top picks or stars, and you would nudge players/picks/whatever else towards the bigger markets and not ignore them for decades.

[Bensational]

I agree with this. They record it behind the scenes as well with every owner in attendance of the lottery drawing of the balls. It would require EVERY single owner to agree that Dallas should get the #1 pick.. and if you believe they did that, then there's no point of even watching the NBA because then it would be compromised by owners not caring if their team wins or not.

Now, the Ewing 'Frozen Envelope' with the bent corner...

You mean billionaires might value their investment differently to the fans of their teams, and be prepared to have a losing product if the asset itself grows in value?

If we’re going to talk odds and maths, someone should calculate the odds of teams losing their franchise players and then receiving a top 3 draft pick within the next 2 years - regardless of whether they have the best odds or 14th best. I’m sure we’ll see a pattern that defies the odds.

I mean, that would imply that the NBA has always been rigged with the owners though. I guarantee you every single season you can make a realistic argument for why X team got a specific player which will benefit them and why the NBA rigged it for them.

Keep in mind, the odds itself changed a few years ago so it wasn't so top heavy - this was to dissuade tanking teams from tanking. Now people are screaming that it's rigged because the odds are working against the worst teams as intended.

Going on Tankathon and pressing the button once also gives you wildly different results.

Yes, there were teams that won hometown hero players like LeBron or Rose that look "odd", but you also had a team in New York that was irrelevant for 20 years, a second LA team that horrific until the 2010s, and a market in Golden State that wasn't relevant for 15+ years. Surely if the bottom line was about asset value, you wouldn't even attempt to let teams like Washington or Memphis or New Orleans gets top picks or stars, and you would nudge players/picks/whatever else towards the bigger markets and not ignore them for decades.

Doesn’t that argument cut both ways though? So billionaires can be content to field uncompetitive teams in major markets for years and nobody questions why they wouldn’t be worried about financial losses - because even when a team like New York loses the franchise value still rises by billions.

You’re talking about a collective of rich people who own pieces of an entertainment industry. The wins and losses most of them care about are in the bank balances, not on the court. So when the rest of the league improves and increases parity even the big market owners win. If Dallas’ owners were solely concerned about winning they wouldn’t have traded away the guy who just carried them to the finals - unless they knew they could get a former MVP and the #1 pick. But Dallas’ owners are property developers from Vegas, and they also developing the precinct around the Mavs which is another big payday for them.

[Bensational]

I'll add this - I don't think the draft is rigged every year, or even the majority of years. But I do think there's a pretty hard to ignore "coincidence" that after a team trades away a franchise player they seem to get really lucky in the next or following draft, and their draft position doesn't matter so it's not purely a result of tanking team with higher odds winning a pick.

Cavs lose LeBron, get Kyrie (from the Clippers 1st they traded for which was #8 pre lottery)
Hornets lose CP3, get AD (from #4 odds)
Pelicans lose AD, get Zion (from #7 pre lottery), plus the #4 pick from Lakers (#11 pre lottery)
Spurs lose Kawhi, get Wemby - this I'll admit is a big stretch. Odds wise, it was well within possibility. But it's such a storybook fit that Pop would get another Duncan before he retires.
Dallas lose Luka, get Cooper (from #14 pre lottery)

These are the standout names for me. There's plenty of other cases where tanking off the back of trading a franchise player paid off or didn't. But this is also a league which is very image conscious, and they don't want a conflict of having a generational talent end up on a team they don't want to be on. Sarr gave up being the #1 pick because he refused to go to Atlanta - and the NBA does not want that kind of publicity.

That said, I can talk against my own points by showing that NYC had the best odds for Zion, and the league didn't give it to them. That would've been a Wemby-like storybook fit, and I can't imagine they'd put a franchise debt over a generational player's will. So I'm not going to stake my life on my own conspiracy theory

[fendilim]

Shocking


Probably Fultz, imo. That’s why he wasn’t brought back last year imo.