Banned NBA Player Reportedly Texted Bettors Mid-Game Saying He Was Going to Fake An Injury
David Zalubowski/AP
Ex-NBA player Jontay Porter allegedly texted bettors in the middle of a game that he planned on faking an injury so that their bets would hit.
In March 2024, the league investigated Porter in connection with suspicious betting activity. Through that investigation, it was revealed that Porter was in contact with multiple bettors and gave them assurances that his in-game performance would fall in line with their bets. For his actions, the league banned him for life in mid-April.
It was later reported that Porter participated in the operation to clear his gambling debt.
According to a Monday report from The Athletic, another man — identified as Shane Hennen — was arrested for his role in the betting operation. Court documents revealed that Hennen “received information from another of Porter’s alleged co-conspirators that the then-Raptors center was planning to manipulate his on-court minutes to help bettors win their prop bets.”
Porter is also alleged to have texted his co-conspirators that he would “take himself out early” and advised them to bet the unders on his player props. The report continued:
Porter told his co-conspirators that he would take himself out early of a Raptors game on Jan. 26 because of an eye injury and that he would leave a March 20 game early by saying he was too ill to keep playing, according to federal prosecutors. Porter did this, prosecutors said, as a way to clear his own “significant gambling debts” and to help the co-conspirators win prop bets placed on him not reaching the over in certain statistical categories.
Porter texted one man during a Jan. 22 Raptors game that he had been taken into the locker room to have his eye examined and that he didn’t anticipate playing more that day and that he wouldn’t start the second half — he had started the game for the Raptors. “But if it’s garbage time I will shoot a million shots,” he followed up. A screenshot of those messages were sent to Hennen the next day, prosecutors said in the complaint. He then told two alleged co-conspirators hours before the Jan. 26 game that he would remove himself from the game that night with an injury. That information was then shared with Hennen. The man who sent the message to Hennen has pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Hennan was also sent along another message from Porter that read: “Hit unders for the big numbers. I told [Co-Conspirator 2] no blocks no steals. I’m going to play first 2-3 minute stint off the bench then when I get subbed out tell them my eye killing me again.” Hennen bet $3,700 through a proxy, according to the complaint filed against him and who federal prosecutors do not name, that Porter would not reach the 4.5 rebounds total listed for him and won.
As noted by The Athletic, Porter is awaiting sentencing in May.
