NBA seeks cell phones from multiple teams, including Lakers, in gambling investigation: Sources – The Athletic

The NBA has asked multiple teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, to hand over documents and other property as part of its investigation into illegal sports gambling, six league sources told The Athletic.

The league, under scrutiny from Congress, is seeking new information based on the federal charges brought last month by the Department of Justice.

Committees from the House and the Senate asked the NBA last month why it did not uncover credible evidence that players and coaches participated in a scheme to use private information to help bettors win money after Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were arrested and charged last month. NBA officials made the case to a congressional committee that the league was taking the charges seriously, and through the outside law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, began contacting teams asking for access to cell phones, among other items.

As a result of the charges filed against Damon Jones, a former NBA player and LeBron James’ former shooting coach who had special access to the Lakers, Wachtell investigators are expected to seek documents, including cell phones and phone records, from at least 10 Lakers employees, league sources told The Athletic. Per league sources, Lakers assistant trainer Mike Mancias and executive administrator Randy Mims are among the employees who are already cooperating and who voluntarily handed their cell phones over to investigators.

Both Mancias and Mims are employed by the Lakers because of their ties to James. The fresh scrutiny is expected to examine their relationship with Jones.

“The NBA engaged an independent law firm to investigate the allegations in the indictment once it was made public,” an NBA spokesman told The Athletic in a statement. “As is standard in these kinds of investigations, a number of different individuals and organizations were asked to preserve documents and records. Everyone has been fully cooperative.”

James, Mancias and Mims have neither been charged with a crime nor even mentioned by name in any federal charging document, but Jones was arrested last month and is accused of selling private injury information to gamblers about two star Lakers players. Prosecutors say that Jones used information disclosed to him by a team trainer on one occasion.

Jones pleaded not guilty in an appearance at a Brooklyn federal courthouse earlier this month. Mancias, 48, has been James’ personal trainer for about 20 years, and Mims, 50, has been close to James since James was a high school star in Akron, Ohio.

The government, in charging Jones for his role in the alleged illegal betting scheme, said he sold injury information on two Lakers stars to bettors on at least two occasions. Jones, the indictment said, was a teammate or coach “of a prominent NBA player,” who it called Player 3. It said that Jones used his relationship with that player and the team to gain information that he then sold to professional gamblers.

Jones, according to prosecutors, found out on the morning of Feb. 9, 2023, that Player 3 would not play in the Lakers’ game against the Bucks that night and told an unnamed co-conspirator to place a “big bet” on the Bucks because Player 3 was out. Player 3 had not been named on the team’s injury report yet, but would miss the game. James did not play in that game.

On Jan. 15, 2024, Jones allegedly sold information that a “Player 4” was injured and that his performance in the upcoming game against the Oklahoma City Thunder would be impacted. The federal government said Jones “claimed to have learned from the trainer for “Player 3” and “Player 4” that “Player 4” was hurt.

At least two team executives for organizations mentioned in the charges against Jones and Rozier were notified by the league of an expanding investigation, league sources said.

The NBA had already launched investigations into former Raptors’ two-way player Jontay Porter, expelling him from the league in April 2024 for engaging in a betting scheme, and into Rozier, whom the league could not prove had violated its rules. Federal prosecutors said Rozier, then a member of the Charlotte Hornets, planned to take himself out early from a March 2023 game so gamblers could bet against him reaching certain statistics and then did so.

While the league investigated Rozier at the time, he was ultimately allowed to keep playing. He played in 125 more NBA games before he was arrested and indicted last month. Rozier was placed on unpaid leave by the NBA days after the charges were brought, although the NBPA has filed an appeal. The NBA shared the results from its investigation with the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York the winter after he first came under suspicion and as he was under investigation by the federal government.

There were other teams mentioned in the federal charges for illegal betting activity around their games, including the Orlando Magic. According to the government, a “regularly starting player” for the Magic told a gambler that the team planned to “tank,” or sit its starters, in an April 2023 game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The gambler allegedly sold the information to other known bettors to place bets against the Magic.

The Magic have not been contacted by the Department of Justice, a league source said, but the unnamed Orlando player named in the indictment is no longer on the team. The Magic’s statement, released when those sweeping charges were filed in October, said the player mentioned was believed to be out of the organization, and the NBA approved the team’s statement prior to its release, league sources said.

There were also illegal bets placed against the Portland Trail Blazers, and the information to bettors was delivered by a “coach” with a description closely matching that of Billups, though Billups has not been charged with sharing information with gamblers. Instead, Billups was charged, along with Jones, with participating in a scheme to defraud card players in illegal poker games.

Additionally, league sources said, the NBA is barreling toward substantial changes in team rules for reporting injury statuses for players as part of the fallout from the ongoing betting scandal. In theory, the incidents surrounding the Lakers, Magic and Blazers could have been prevented with tighter rules governing when players must be declared injured in information released to the public.

Jones’ role as an unofficial coach with the Lakers was allowed because of his history with James as a teammate and friend. He was a popular presence in the locker room and on team planes despite having no official credentials. His participation in team card games even led to the group’s 3-point celebration — “the freeze” — mimicking how Jones would pretend to flash a badge as he said “Freeze, Miami Vice” before sweeping up a pot.

Jones’ unofficial role with the Lakers ended after one season.

Mancias, Mims and Jones are the latest James associates to find themselves in a gambling investigation, though a separate one. Maverick Carter, James’ main business manager, was a client of a bookie who pleaded guilty to federal charges that he was part of an offshore betting ring. Carter was interviewed as part of the investigation into the bookie Wayne Nix, The Athletic reported in 2023, and accused of giving false statements to investigators, according to court filings, though he later clarified them and was not charged.

Athletic reporter Dan Woike contributed to this story.