NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Considering Lifetime Ban For Jontay Porter Amid Gambling Accusations

On Wednesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he was not ruling out a lifetime ban as the league continues investigating Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. The role player is accused of manipulating his stats to collect money through sports gambling.

Silver commented about Porter in Manhattan after the league’s board of governors meeting. He said he still considered several punishments as the league’s investigation continues.

“I have an enormous range of discipline available to me,” Silver said. “But it’s a cardinal sin, what he’s accused of in the NBA, and the ultimate, extreme option I have is to ban him from the game.”

Silver said that Porter’s actions might deserve such an extreme action, as insider betting by players arguably goes against the spirit of competition and the league’s countless rules that enforce it.

“That’s the level of authority I have here,” Silver said. “Because there’s nothing more serious, I think, around this league when it comes to gambling: betting on our games. And that is a direct player involvement. And so, the investigation is ongoing, but the consequences could be very severe.”

The league first began its investigation into Porter in late March after a series of large prop bets involving Porter cashed in specific games in the previous two months. DraftKings Sportsbook reported that these bets were irregular and highly successful.

Though Porter is not a star, he is one of the first players directly implicated in-game tampering in the modern sports betting era. Many speculated that a thawing relationship between leagues, media outlets and sportsbooks would eventually lead to such scandals.

If the league concludes that Porter tampered with NBA games to cash bets on himself, it will likely take the opportunity to make an example of him and set a precedent for future cases. However, it is unclear if the league’s actions against players will do enough to counteract its embrace of gambling as a form of marketing.