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Ex-NBA player Jontay Porter pleads guilty in case tied to gambling scandal that tanked his career – Basketball

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Ex-NBA player Jontay Porter pleads guilty in case tied to gambling scandal that tanked his career – Basketball

The Canadian Press – Jul 11, 2024 / 5:50 pm | Story: 496768

Kyle Lowry says he is re-signing with his hometown Philadelphia 76ers.

The six-time All-Star guard announced his decision on Instagram on Thursday. ESPN reported that the 38-year-old Lowry is agreeing to a one-year deal.

The North Philadelphia native and Villanova product signed with the Sixers last February after he was traded from Miami to Charlotte and quickly bought out by the Hornets. Lowry averaged 8.0 points and 4.6 assists while starting 20 of his 23 regular-season games for the Sixers, and he remained a key part of Philadelphia’s lineup in its first-round playoff loss to New York.

Lowry is an 18-year veteran, and just 25 players in NBA history have played at least 19 seasons in the league. Only four active players last season are older than Lowry: LeBron James, P.J. Tucker, Taj Gibson and Chris Paul.

Lowry’s return is another aggressive move by the revamped 76ers, who will expect to be in title contention after adding Paul George to a roster led by Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. George left the Los Angeles Clippers for a four-year, $212 million deal as a free agent in Philadelphia this summer, and Maxey quickly agreed to a five-year, $204 million extension.

The Sixers also re-signed Kelly Oubre Jr. and added veteran free agents Eric Gordon, Caleb Martin and Andre Drummond in a bid to capitalize on the remaining years of Embiid’s prime. Philadelphia hasn’t advanced to the Eastern Conference finals since 2001.

Lowry has played for five NBA teams. He won a championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, and he won an Olympic gold medal in 2016.

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NBA’s 11-year, $76 billion contract package would kick in with the 2025-26 season. The deal is for the same number of years as the NFL’s most recent agreement, which began with the 2023 season.

The deals with ESPN/ABC, NBC and Amazon Prime Video will average $6.9 billion per season. The NFL averages $10 billion per year, but that is with five networks. Depending on how things fare with TNT Sports, the NBA could cross the $7 billion threshold.

The NFL remains the top attraction because of its ratings and advertising prowess. The NBA is a firm second and can command top dollar due to its younger viewers as well as having a ton of content.

When does this become final?

At least not for a couple of weeks. The NBA has a board of governors meeting in Las Vegas next week and could approve the deal there. Once the league sends the finished contracts to TNT Sports, it would have five days to match one of the deals.

Does TNT Sports have any chance?

Very slim. And if the NBA really wanted to keep one of its legacy partners in the game, it could have carved out a limited fourth package of games by now.

With TNT’s recent acquisitions of the French Open, College Football Playoff early-round games, the Big East and Mountain West, it appears owner Warner Bros. Discovery is preparing for life without the NBA in the fall of 2025. Turner Sports has had the NBA since 1984.

TNT Sports is paying $1.4 billion per season. Considering the amounts of the three proposed packages, that would make the Prime Video rights the one it would be likely to try to match.

Why is the deal so long?

Leagues want economic certainty. For the networks and media companies that hold the rights, live sports continue to be prime real estate for advertisers.

How will this benefit the fan?

You may need to go to your channel guide often, but during the last three months of the regular season there will be a national NBA telecast every night on either ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock or Prime Video.

Who has the top package?

ESPN and ABC will continue to be home to the league’s marquee matchups, as well as the NBA Finals.

Even though the NBA will have two broadcast partners for the first time, the Walt Disney Company was adamant about not sharing the Finals. It will cost Disney $2.6 billion per year, which is just shy of the $2.7 billion per season it pays to the NFL for “Monday Night Football,” two playoff games and the Super Bowl in 2027 and 2031.

Under the current nine-year deal which expires next season, ESPN/ABC pay $1.4 billion per year.

Welcome back, NBC

The network that carried all six of Michael Jordan’s title runs with the Chicago Bulls and the first three of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s championships with the Los Angeles Lakers returns after carrying games from 1990 through 2002.

NBC will air a Sunday night package of games once the NFL regular season is over as well as NBA All-Star Weekend. It will regularly air games on Tuesday nights and have a package of Monday games streaming on Peacock.

NBC’s deal averages $2.5 billion per season, which is more than the $2 billion it gives to the NFL for “Sunday Night Football.”

Dose this mean ‘Roundball Rock’ is coming back?

Yes. You don’t have to wait until the fall of 2025 to hear it though because NBC licenses it for its basketball coverage during the Olympics.

Is the NBA entering the streaming world?

Yes, with Prime Video. It will carry games on Thursday night after the NFL regular season ends, along with games on Friday and Saturday.

Prime Video will also be the main network for the in-season tournament. It will average paying $1.8 billion per season (its deal with the NFL averages $1.1 billion per year).

Because ABC has the NBA Finals, who gets the rest of the playoffs?

All the networks will have games during the first two rounds. When it comes to the conference finals, ESPN/ABC has one series each season while NBC and Amazon Prime Video will alternate who carries the other one.

What does this mean for the NBA?

Labor peace was achieved with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The media rights are about to be done. That puts expansion by at least two teams to 32 on deck. The expansion fees will also carry a nice financial windfall for teams.

For players, it means the league’s salary cap will see an annual 10% increase. Get ready for the possibility that the top players may be earning somewhere near $100 million per season by the mid-2030s.

Is the WNBA part of this rights deal?

Yes. All three partners will carry games. ESPN/ABC and Prime Video already have games while NBC will return to carrying the WNBA after doing the first six seasons (1997 through 2002). It is possible the WNBA could still add more partners like it has in recent seasons.

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Wilson sank a contested jumper from the free-throw line with 48.2 seconds left for an 82-76 lead. Jewell Loyd was fouled on a 3-point attempt at the other end, and she made all three free throws to pull Seattle within three points.

MERCURY 100, WINGS 84

PHOENIX (AP) — Kahleah Copper scored 32 points, the seventh time she’s had over 30 this season, and Phoenix beat Dallas for their third straight series victory.

Brittney Griner added 23 points for Phoenix (12-10), which scored 100-plus points against Dallas for the second time in a week, following a 104-96 victory on July 3.

Copper scored 18 points in the first half and Griner added 13 to help Phoenix build a 49-46 lead. Copper scored seven of Phoenix’s 31 third-quarter points to help pull away.

The Mercury improved to 10-0 when taking a lead into the fourth quarter this season.

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Kevin Porter Jr. on Wednesday.

Batum played in 60 games for the Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers last season, averaging 5.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists. He was part of the trade that brought James Harden to the Clippers.

Harden, who was a free agent, received a two-year deal that includes a player option. The Clippers officially announced Wednesday that he was staying.

Batum, a 35-year-old Frenchman, is one of seven active NBA players with 10,000 points, 5,000 rebounds and 1,500 3-pointers. He was reluctant to leave the Clippers, having credited coach Tyronn Lue with saving his career.

“It’s hard to find a better connector with a higher IQ than Nico,” said Lawrence Frank, Clippers president of basketball operations. “We didn’t want to lose him last year and we felt his absence. He plays the game the right way, which our fans appreciate, and so do we. We’re thrilled to welcome back the battalion.”

Jones averaged a career-high 8.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and one assist in 76 games for the Dallas Mavericks last season. He also started in 22 playoff games — averaging 9.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists — as the Mavs lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

Jones, 27, has previous stints with Phoenix, Miami, Portland and Chicago. He won the 2020 NBA Slam Dunk contest.

Porter was inactive with Cleveland at the start of the 2020-21 season after an offseason weapons charge, which was later dropped. He was traded to Houston later that season.

In 2023, Porter was charged with felony counts of assault and strangulation after an altercation with a former girlfriend in New York, resulting in a trade to Oklahoma City. The Thunder waived him immediately and he played overseas last season.

Porter reached a plea deal on a misdemeanor reckless assault charge in January that requires him to complete a court-ordered program in order to have his plea changed to not guilty with no criminal record.

In Greece, Porter averaged 22 points, 9.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.8 steals.

The 24-year-old Seattle native played collegiately at Southern California before being drafted with the 30th overall pick in 2019.

Porter has appeared in 196 games with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets, averaging 15.3 points, 5.0 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals.

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Jontay Porter admitted Wednesday that he schemed to take himself out of games for gambling’s sake, pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy crime in the scandal that already got him banned from the league.

“I know what I did was wrong, unlawful, and I am deeply sorry,” the former Toronto Raptors center said as he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Echoing findings in an NBA investigation and allegations in an ongoing prosecution of four other men, Porter acknowledged that he agreed to withdraw early from games so that co-conspirators could win bets on his performance.

He did it, he said, “to get out from under large gambling debts.”

Porter, 24, is free on $250,000 bond while awaiting sentencing set for Dec. 18.

Prosecutors estimated his sentence at a range from just under three and a half years in prison to a little over four years. Ultimately it will be up to a judge, who could impose anything from no time to 20 years behind bars. Porter also is likely to be assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution and fines.

He and his lawyer left court without speaking to reporters. The attorney, Jeff Jensen, later declined by email to comment beyond a statement he made last month, in which he said Porter “was in over his head due to a gambling addiction.”

“Jontay is a good young man with strong faith that will get him through this,” Jensen said at the time.

Porter told the court he has undergone inpatient rehab for a gambling problem and remains in therapy.

In a related case, four other men are charged with scheming to profit off tips from an NBA player that he was going to exit two games early. They or their relatives used the knowledge to place big-winning bets that the athlete would do poorly in those games, according to a court complaint filed when they were charged in June. They haven’t yet entered pleas.

The complaint against them didn’t name the player. But details matched up with the NBA investigation that found that Porter gave bettors confidential information about his health, exited at least one game because of bets and wagered on NBA games in which he didn’t play. He once bet against his own team, the league said.

According to the complaint, one of the four men pressed the player to clear up gambling debts by prematurely pulling out of games so that bets on him underperforming would pay off.

In a message responding to the man’s instructions, the player wrote that if he didn’t carry out the plan, “u hate me and if I don’t get u 8k by Friday you’re coming to Toronto to beat me up.”

After tipping off some of the men, the player claimed injury or illness and withdrew from Jan. 26 and March 20 games after only minutes on the court, the complaint said.

Porter played only briefly on those dates before complaining he was hurt or sick and exiting the games. His points, rebounds and assists in both games fell below sportsbooks’ expectations.

According to the complaint, some of the alleged conspirators agreed in advance to share about a quarter of any winnings from the March 20 game with the player. One gambler was on track to collect over $1 million before a betting company got suspicious and stopped him from getting most of the money.

After the NBA and others began investigating, the player messaged some of the men that they “might just get hit w a rico,” an apparent reference to the common acronym for a federal racketeering charge, according to the complaint against them. It said the player also asked the men whether they had deleted “all the stuff” from their phones.

Porter averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games this season, including five starts. He also played in 11 games for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2020-21 season.

His NBA salary was about $410,000.

Pistons, who have lost a league-record 14 straight playoff games dating to 2008, hired Bickerstaff after he was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers, a franchise the coach helped improve over four seasons.

Bickerstaff took over the Cavs in 2020, when John Beilein exited with a 14-40 record. He led them to the playoffs in each of the last two years, winning a first-round series last season.

“I think the proof is there that we have the experience,” Bickerstaff said Wednesday when he was formally introduced as Detroit’s third coach in three years.

The Pistons were drawn to the 45-year-old Bickerstaff because he previously led three NBA teams, giving him a track record to help sell his vision to a mix of young players and veterans.

“You want somebody who can come in here and hit the ground running, and who’s done this before,” Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon said. “Especially with a young team coming off a difficult season, positivity was important.

“We felt experience was important. The players needed to feel like the person coming in here knew what he was talking about.”

Bickerstaff, who twice finished among the top five in NBA Coach of the Year voting, was 170-159 in four-plus seasons in Cleveland and had six victories in the playoffs.

The Cavs fired Bickerstaff in May after winning 99 regular-season games over the last two seasons and losing to Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Detroit gave him a four-year contract, with a team option for a fifth season. He is replacing Monty Williams, who was fired one season into his six-year, $78.5 million contract.

Langdon is succeeding fired general manager Troy Weaver, whose teams in Detroit won 23% of its games in his four seasons.

While Langdon has made many moves to potentially make the team better on the court, his decision to give Bickerstaff another shot on the sideline was a recruiting process that Bickerstaff said he appreciates.

His previous head coaching positions were all promotions — in Houston, Memphis and Cleveland after Kevin McHale and David Fizdale were fired and Beilein resigned.

“All of us are human — feels good to be wanted and sought after,” Bickerstaff said. “The fact that Trajan reached out and gave me the call, let me know that he believed in me right away.”

Detroit will have to overcome doubts to be a winner next season.

Cade Cunningham’s improved surrounding cast, though, seems to set the team up for some level of improvement.

Cunningham, who agreed to a $224 million, five-year contract extension to stay in the Motor City, should have some more shooters to help spread the floor.

Langdon’s early moves include signing Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley, acquiring Tim Hardaway Jr. from Dallas in a trade and selecting Ron Holland of the G League Ignite with the No. 5 pick in the NBA draft.

The veterans will be asked to produce while leading a group of young players that includes 20-year-old Jalen Duren, 21-year-old Ausar Thompson along with 22-year-olds Cunningham and Jaden Ivey.

“There’s some high-level, high-ceiling potential guys,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s our responsibility to help them get there.”

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Dejounte Murray was necessary, Atlanta Hawks general manager Landry Fields knows he faces more challenges this offseason.

The NBA draft brought Atlanta two players, including No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher. Saturday’s trade with the New Orleans Pelicans added four veterans to the roster, plus two future first-round draft picks, for Murray.

That leaves the Hawks with an overstocked roster and the possibility that more veterans could leave Atlanta.

Fields said Wednesday that the decision to trade Murray, who joined Trae Young in Atlanta’s high-scoring backcourt the last two seasons, followed the conclusion that “we wanted to reshape some things.”

“It was hard decisions, challenging,” Fields said. “We knew that where we ultimately want to be was going to require some challenging decisions. … So from now until the start of the season, we’ll have some more tough decisions to make.”

The Hawks have not won a playoff series since advancing to the 2021 Eastern Conference finals and they finished 10th in the Eastern Conference at 36-46 this season.

The first step in reshaping the roster was Fields trading AJ Griffin to Houston and acquiring the rights to guard/forward Nikola Djurisic of Serbia in the draft.

The 6-foot-9 Risacher, a forward from France, joins Young and forward Jalen Johnson as the foundation for the rebuild. Risacher has made a strong first impression in workouts this week for the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

“He shoots the ball like crazy,” Djurisic said of Risacher. “He can hit some wild shots. He can block some shots.”

Forward E.J. Liddell, a 2022 second-round draft pick who was part of the package of veterans acquired from the Pelicans, said Risacher “has got a lot of potential to be really great. He’s a tough shot-maker. He’s tall. It’s going to be really tough to contest his shots. And he can handle the ball for a guy so tall.”

Liddell, who also will play on the Hawks’ Summer League team, guard Dyson Daniels, forward/center Larry Nance Jr. and center Cody Zeller were acquired in Saturday’s trade. Daniels was a 2022 first-round pick.

The trade created a surplus of options at center. There has been speculation the Hawks could trade Clint Capela, who has shared time with Onyeka Okongwu. Fields said he was trying to reach an agreement with center Bruno Fernando to push back Wednesday’s deadline to guarantee Fernando’s $2.72 million salary for next season.

Capela, 30, is due to earn more than $22 million next year before possibly becoming a free agent.

“I still place a lot of value in Clint, so should be fine,” Fields said.

Daniels, who is expected to provide strong defense, could join Bogdan Bogdanovic, Garrison Mathews, Seth Lundy and others in the shooting guard spot that had been manned by Murray. Lundy was signed to a new two-way contract on Tuesday.

Risacher could immediately push De’Andre Hunter at small forward. Fields said he hopes Risacher uses the Summer League experience to “get more and more integrated, accustomed to actually playing a new style of basketball.”

Risacher, 19, said he was “super excited” to begin the transition from European basketball to the NBA.

“There’s so many difference between those two,” Risacher said. “First of all, of course, it’s bigger. And just the way we play here is kind of different. And that’s, you know, that’s good. … It’s really interesting for me to discover and be able to play here with all those great players.”

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Jontay Porter on Wednesday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a federal criminal case tied to the betting scandal that got him banned from the league earlier this year.

The former Toronto Raptors center entered the plea at his arraignment in a New York federal court and was set to be released on bond of $250,000.

His lawyer had previously said that Porter was cooperating with authorities while being treated for a gambling addiction.

Court papers showed the case against Porter is related to an ongoing prosecution of four other men. The four have been arraigned on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud but haven’t yet entered any pleas.

Those men are charged with scheming to profit off tips from an NBA player that he was going to exit two games early. They or their relatives used the knowledge to place big-winning bets that the athlete would do poorly in those games, according to a court complaint filed when they were charged in June.

The complaint didn’t name the player, but details matched up with an NBA investigation that spurred Porter’s banishment from the league this spring. The league found that he gambled on NBA games and gave bettors confidential information about his health.

In court Wednesday, Porter said he agreed to withdraw early from games to get out from under large gambling debts so he and co-conspirators could win bets on his performance. “I know what I did was wrong, unlawful, and I am deeply sorry,” he said.

Porter is set to be sentenced Dec. 18. He could face from just under three and a half years in prison to a little over four years. He’s also likely to be assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution, plus potential fines.

According to the complaint, one of the four men pressed the player to clear up gambling debts by prematurely pulling out of games so that bets on him underperforming would pay off.

In a message responding to the man’s instructions, the player wrote that if he didn’t carry out the plan, “u hate me and if I don’t get u 8k by Friday you’re coming to Toronto to beat me up.”

After tipping off some of the men, the player claimed injury or illness and withdrew from Jan. 26 and March 20 games after only minutes on the court, the complaint said.

Porter played only briefly on those dates before complaining he was hurt or sick and exiting the games. His points, rebounds and assists in both games fell below sportsbooks’ expectations.

After the NBA and others began investigating, the player messaged some of the men that they “might just get hit w a rico,” an apparent reference to the common acronym for a federal racketeering charge, according to the complaint against them. It said the player also asked the men whether they had deleted “all the stuff” from their phones.

The NBA’s probe found that Porter not only exited at least one game for gamblers’ sake but also wagered on NBA games in which he didn’t play. He once bet against his own team, the league said.

Porter averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games this season, including five starts. He also played in 11 games for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2020-21 season.

The 24-year-old’s NBA salary was about $410,000.

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