Steph Curry, Draymond Green & More React To NBA's Gambling Scandal
Steph Curry, Draymond Green & More React To NBA’s Gambling Scandal
The latest NBA gambling scandal has ripped through the league, and now Commissioner Adam Silver has finally weighed in.
While hanging out in the tunnel at Madison Square Garden during the New York Knicks game against the Boston Celtics on Friday, Amazon Prime’s Cassidy Hubbarth asked him about his reaction when the news broke.
“My initial reaction was I was deeply disturbed,” Silver told 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.”
When pressed further, Silver said legal betting platforms first noticed abnormal bets surrounding Terry Rozier’s stats back in 2023. So, they brought him in for questioning and searched his phone, and he was cooperative throughout the entire investigation, while the league uncovered nothing.
He added, “And we ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence to move forward. But obviously, it doesn’t look good.”
Silver does make it clear that law enforcement has way more power when it comes to locking people up, so there wasn’t much the league could do anyway.
Some of the league’s top players even spoke out once the scandal broke, including Steph Curry. The four-time NBA champion chalked it up to a changing landscape within the new world of legal sports betting, but he thinks it’ll ultimately be fine.
“I think on the whole, everybody’s very mindful of what to do, what not to do, and understanding the landscape of sports right now in general,” said Curry. “And that’s not just an NBA thing, this is new territory for everybody. So I think, on the whole, we all are very responsible.
He added, “The integrity of the game is fine, and then obviously we let the situation play out, whatever happens. But I wouldn’t worry about that too much.”
Teammate Draymond Green also gave his honest opinion on fans calling the league hypocritical for partnering with gambling companies but then penalizing its players for getting involved, after mentioning that he was “shocked” and calling it “a tough moment for the league.”
“But I’m not going to sit here and be like, ‘man, you all partner with a gambling company, you open a can of worms’. That can of worms can be opened with partnering with gambling companies or not,” he said. “Partnering with a gambling company is not going to make gambling more accessible to us. The accessibility is what it is.”
The scandal was unearthed last week when Shams Charania broke the news on ESPN, and FBI Director Kash Patel’s news conference shortly after.
Over 30 individuals were arrested, including Chauncey Billups for participating in mafia-backed poker games, Terry Rozier for purposefully altering his performance, and assistant coach Damon Jones for altering bettors of LeBron James’ availability.
See ongoing reactions to the gambling blowup below.
