The entire NBA world was rocked on Thursday morning by news of arrests by the FBI involving current and former players and coaches linked to gambling scandals. The Los Angeles Lakers were also mentioned in the report as one of the suspicious games involved one between them and the Milwaukee Bucks from 2023 in which LeBron James would sit out.
Former player and coach Damon Jones was one of the people arrested and he is a former teammate and close friend of LeBron who also spent some time around the Lakers over the past few years. Jones allegedly shared non-public information about James with gamblers and, of course, the next question would be whether LeBron or the Lakers knew that this was going on.
But according to Dan Woike, Mike Vorkunov, Joe Vardon and Mike Prada of The Athletic, James had no idea that Jones was sharing this information:
A league source with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic that James was unaware that Jones shared information about his playing status.
While Jones was around the team periodically during this time period, he was never an official member of the Lakers staff. As it currently stands, neither the Lakers nor James are under investigation by the FBI or NBA at this time.
Aside from Jones, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested for his potential involvement in gambling on the NBA while Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested for his involvement in an illegal poker operations tied to the Mafia. Jones appears to be involved in both the NBA gambling and poker scandals.
The Lakers game in question against the Bucks came just two days after James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record. It was also the day of the trade deadline in which the Lakers acquired D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley, so the team was extremely shorthanded and ultimately fell to the Bucks 115-106.
Coincidentally, Beasley was under FBI investigation earlier this offseason for his alleged involvement in sports gambling, though it was ultimately announced by his lawyers that he was no longer a target.
Draymond Green wishes Lakers’ LeBron James speedy recovery from sciatica
LeBron James’ focus can hopefully now return to getting back on the court as the Lakers superstar is dealing with sciatica that is keeping him out for the start of the regular season. But rival and good friend Draymond Green wished LeBron a speedy recovery from the issue that he himself has dealt with in the past.
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