Terry Rozier declines to address investigation, says he won't have issue focusing on basketball

MIAMI — Terry Rozier declined to answer questions Friday about the investigations by federal prosecutors into unusual betting patterns surrounding his play in a game when he was with the Charlotte Hornets in 2023.

Rozier, now with the Miami Heat, is linked to the same probe that led to former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter being banned for life from the NBA, facing criminal prosecution and eventually pleading guilty to committing wire fraud.

Porter is awaiting sentencing. There has been no indication that Rozier is under criminal investigation, and he has not been charged with a crime.

‘‘On advice from counsel, I can’t answer any questions about that matter," Rozier said Friday. “So, I won’t.‘’

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday first reported the investigation surrounding the Hornets-New Orleans game involving Rozier on March 23, 2023. Rozier left the game after 9 1/2 minutes and not only did not return — foot discomfort was the reason cited — he did not play again for the Hornets that season.

The NBA said it has previously looked into the Rozier situation and did not find that any league rules were broken. It confirmed Thursday that there is an investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, and the league said it is “cooperating with that investigation.‘’

Rozier — averaging 12.1 points per game this season — will continue to play for the Heat, per usual. Miami opens a road trip at San Antonio on Saturday.

‘‘His status is still the same,‘’ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about Rozier’s place with the team on Friday.

Rozier said he’s ‘’in a great headspace'' and that he does not anticipate any issues being able to focus on playing, even with the investigation now having been revealed publicly.

‘‘It’s kind of always been easy. It’s kind of been my life," Rozier said. “You know, once I get in between them lines, I can block out anything. So, it’ll be pretty easy for me. I’m around a great group of guys. We’ve got a great locker room, great staff, so it’s easy for me.‘’

In that March 23, 2023, game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in that opening period — a productive quarter, but well below his usual total output for a full game.

Posts still online from that date show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something ‘’shady'' had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.

Some sportsbooks offered Rozier prop bets — his totals for that night were generally set around 21.5 points, six assists and four rebounds — that day, then took them down hours before the start of the Charlotte-New Orleans game. It was not clear why that happened, and some bettors wondered aloud why that unusual move had taken place. Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report going into the game.

The 30-year-old Rozier is in the third year of a four-year, $96.3 million contract.

Porter’s ban came after a similar investigation into his performance and ‘’prop bets'' — wagers where bettors can choose whether a player will reach a certain statistical standard or not during a game. The Porter investigation started once the league learned from ‘’licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets'' about unusual gambling patterns surrounding Porter’s performance in a game on March 20, 2024, against Sacramento.

The league determined that Porter gave a bettor information about his own health status prior that game and said that another individual — known to be an NBA bettor — placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would not hit the numbers set for him in parlays through an online sports book. That bet would have won $1.1 million.

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