LeBron James, splashed by the scandal of illegal betting in the NBA

Former NBA player Damon Jones, with an 11-season career in the league, was arrested on Thursday accused of disclosing confidential medical information about a "prominent" player's injury to facilitate illegal sports betting, as authorities reported.

Sources close to ESPN confirmed that the player in question was LeBron James, although the current star of the Los Angeles Lakers was not charged with any crime or formally implicated in the investigation.

Jones was one of 34 arrested, including the Portland Trail Blazers coach, Chauncey Billups, and the Miami Heat shooting guard, Terry Rozier, in a vast FBI operation that spanned nearly a dozen states and involved tens of millions of dollars, as explained by the agency's director, Kash Patel.

The investigation encompasses two parallel cases: one on illegal sports betting and another on poker games manipulated with ties to the mafia.

Jones had been part of the Lakers' technical staff during Darvin Ham's tenure as coach, although without holding an official or paid position. After JJ Redick arrived on the Lakers' bench, Jones had no further connection to the franchise. Ham had invited his former teammate and assistant from the Cleveland Cavaliers to participate in team activities after James had trained with him during the summer of 2022.

FBI Info

According to the federal indictment, before the game between the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks on February 9, 2023, Jones sent a message to an accomplice saying, "Bet big on Milwaukee tonight," claiming that James wouldn't play. At that time, James had just surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer but missed the following three games due to left ankle discomfort.

Jones added in another message, "Bet enough for Djones to eat as well!" Without James, the Bucks defeated the Lakers 115-106. The indictment also alleges that in the following season, Jones again shared private information before the game between the Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder on January 15, 2024.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, LeBron James, salpicado por el escándalo de las apuestas ilegales en la NBA