U.S lawmakers asks NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for briefing on gambling scandal

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has asked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to brief them by October 31 on the league’s response to a widening gambling scandal that has ensnared current and former basketball figures, including Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.

Six members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to Silver on Friday, requesting information on the NBA’s relationship with sports betting companies to “assist the Committee in its oversight.” The request follows federal indictments announced last week by the Eastern District of New York, implicating Billups, Rozier, and former NBA player Damon Jones in two separate gambling investigations, as per CNN.

The lawmakers asked Silver to explain “alleged betting practices in connection with NBA players, coaches and officials,” outline the league’s efforts to prevent “illegal purposes” involving inside information, and assess whether its code of conduct “effectively prohibits illegal activity.”

They also sought clarity on “whether and how the NBA is reevaluating the terms of its partnerships with sports betting companies,” including DraftKings and FanDuel, and urged him to identify gaps in “existing regulations that allow illegal betting schemes to occur.”

The committee said the allegations “raise serious concerns about sports betting and the integrity of sport in the NBA, which harms fans and legal sports bettors.” It added that it has previously examined issues ranging from steroid use in Major League Baseball to anti-doping and athlete safety at the Olympic Games.

The letter noted that “illegal sports betting based on non-public information in the NBA is not a new problem,” citing the 2007 case of referee Tim Donaghy and the 2024 investigation into Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter.

Silver, in his first public comments on the scandal, said “My initial reaction was I was deeply disturbed” by the news and had “a pit in [his] stomach.” Speaking on Amazon Prime Video during a Boston Celtics–New York Knicks broadcast, he added: “There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition… It was very upsetting.”

Appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Silver called for tighter oversight of sports betting. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state,” he said, adding, “We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets.”

Jim Trusty, an attorney for Rozier, disputed the accusations against his client, saying prosecutors had described him as “a subject of their investigation and not a target.”