Ira Winderman: The losing proposition of Terry Rozier leaves Pat Riley, Heat having to answer
MIAMI — Of all of Pat Riley’s recent postseason media sessions, Monday’s was arguably as on point as any in years. Riley recognized the need for clear, coherent reasoning regarding where he stands as Heat president and where his team stands after failing to make the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons. For an hour, the typical Riley anecdotes, historical and otherwise, were put aside, making it perhaps the first time there was only a sole reference to the Showtime Lakers and Riley’s time in Los Angeles.
And then, once the beat writers had largely been sated, came a moment that could have taken it all off the rails ... when Riley was asked about sports gambling. For most in sports, it is a precarious tightrope, considering the impact on the games itself, but also the pervasiveness of the impact on teams’ bottom lines.
For the Heat, however, there is another level because of the Terry Rozier situation, of trading in January 2024 for a player while not made aware of an NBA gambling investigation, of effectively being left with $26. 6 million in dead money on their salary cap with Rozier this past season being placed on NBA leave. “It didn’t work out,” Riley had understated earlier in his media session of that trade.
“We all know that turned out to be a nightmare. ” The day Riley spoke at Kaseya Center, Rozier was back in court, learning of superseding federal sports bribery and honest-services wire-fraud charges being planned. Then, Thursday, Dan Spillane, the NBA’s Executive Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, League Governance & Policy, sent a four-page letter on behalf of the league to Christopher Kirkpatrick.
Secretary of the Commission Commodity Futures Trading Commission, regarding prediction markets, such as Kalshi and Polymarket, and their impact on the NBA. In that correspondence, the NBA sought a ban on prediction markets regarding officiating decisions, injuries, disciplinary actions, player transactions, fan behavior and G League games. So, basically, a league that recognizes that we’ve moved into a time when there could be a market for referee Scott Foster issuing his next ejection, Kawhi Leonard’s next injury, a fan entering the court, certainly all within the realm of possibilities considering how such markets already deal in political and military realms.
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