Members of Congress have requested a briefing from NBA commissioner Adam Silver on the sports fixing and illegal betting scandal that rocked the sports world last week.
In the letter, bipartisan lawmakers expressed “serious concerns” about the scandal, which implicated current players and coaches, along with members of the mafia.
Key Takeaways
- Silver and the NBA previously investigated and cleared Terry Rozier of wrongdoing.
- The scandal ranged from limiting participation in games to hosting fraudulent poker games with the mafia.
- NBA commissioner "deeply disturbed" by arrests, allegations.
A bipartisan group of six representatives serving the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce penned the letter to Silver. They asked for:
- Details on the allegations and previous incidents related to illegal sports gambling.
- Plans of action to limit NBA personnel from sharing privileged information.
- A review on the effectiveness of the league’s gambling policy.
- An explanation on how illegal gambling scandals occurred.
- Information on the NBA’s partnerships with gambling companies, and if those partnerships are being reviewed.
The letter was sent at the end of what should’ve been a celebratory week for the NBA.
Players and teams returned to the hardwood for the first time since the NBA Finals. Since then, there’s already been a Finals rematch between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, first-overall pick Cooper Flagg made his professional debut, and several players scored 50 points in one game.
Instead, the week was dominated by headlines of gambling scandals. On Thursday, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested for allegedly limiting his participation in a game during the 2023-24 season for the benefit of sports bettors, while ex-assistant coach Damon Jones was accused of sharing privileged injury information with sports betting affiliates.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was also arrested for his alleged role in illegal poker games, during which advanced technology – such as special lenses on glasses and X-ray tables – were used to defraud millions of dollars from other players.
A person with a description matching Billups was also said to have shared that a Trail Blazers player would miss a March 2023 contest before the information was made public.
NBA league policy mandates that team and league officials do not participate in sports betting and do not disclose information that isn’t already public.
Adam Silver speaks for the first time
Speaking publicly for the first time since the arrests, Silver said – during an NBA on Prime broadcast on Friday night – he was “deeply disturbed" by the arrests, of which he had not been warned.
“My initial reaction was I was deeply disturbed,” Silver told reporter Cassidy Hubbarth. “There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition, so I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting.”
Cassidy Hubbarth interviewed NBA Commissioner Adam Silver during Celtics-Knicks on Prime. pic.twitter.com/KB42EssfpU
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) October 25, 2025
The NBA had previously looked into Rozier after it was informed of suspicious behavior from gamblers, one of which won 30 bets on his unders.
Following an investigation, the league office cleared Rozier from any wrongdoing.
“What happened was, because bets were placed by legal betting companies, they picked up aberrational behavior around a particular game in March of ’23,” Silver told Hubbarth. “So that was brought to our attention by the regulators and the betting companies. We then looked into that situation and were very transparent about it, and while there was that aberrational betting, we frankly couldn’t find anything.”
Rozier and Billups were placed on administrative leave. The pair and former NBA assistant coach Damon Jones made their first appearances in court Thursday.
