According to a statement from the North American Professional League (NBA) on Wednesday, the Viennese’s teammate Jakob Pöltl is accused of betting fraud. An investigation found that Porter violated league rules by disclosing confidential information, restricting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes and betting on NBA games.
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s flagrant violations of our rules of the game will be met with the harshest possible punishment.” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in the statement. The 24-year-old center had been under investigation for weeks.
Confidential information
Before the Raptors’ game against the Sacramento Kings, Porter allegedly gave confidential information about his status for the game to people he knew were betting on the NBA. As a result, one of the people is said to have bet $80,000 on poor performance by Porter – with an expected profit of $1.1 million (1.03 million euros). Porter only played three minutes in the game and then said he wasn’t feeling well. The bet was frozen and not paid out due to unusual betting behavior.
It also came to light that Porter, the brother of Michael Porter Jr. of the Denver Nuggets, placed bets on NBA games at least 13 times using someone else’s betting account. Bet amounts ranged from $15 to $22,000. Porter made $21,965 in profit on the bets.
“You don’t want this for our league”
“You don’t want this for the kid, you don’t want this for our team and you don’t want this for our league,” Raptors president Masaj Ujiri said Wednesday just before the NBA decision was announced. “My first reaction was of course surprise. None of us and I don’t think anyone else saw this coming.” The Canadian team later released a statement emphasizing its full support of the NBA’s decision. “We are grateful for the quick resolution of this investigation. We will continue to cooperate with inquiries.”
Porter had a contract for the current season with permission to play in both the NBA and the development league, the G League. His salary was around $410,000. If he had received a regular NBA contract for the coming season, he would have earned at least $2 million. Porter averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games this season. He was in the starting lineup five times and has not been used since March 20th.
