At some point we are going to get a big ass gambling scandal though. It’s only a matter of time.
or_maybe_this
This will get reposted without a paywall explaining that this is LeBron’s manager
pompcaldor
> Carter told agents he “could not remember placing any bets on the Lakers,” according to an investigative report summarizing the interview.
He totally placed bets on the Lakers.
Hapte
LOS ANGELES — Maverick Carter, the longtime manager and business partner of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, admitted to betting on NBA games through an illegal bookie, according to federal law enforcement records reviewed by The Washington Post.
Carter made the admission during a November 2021 interview with federal agents investigating bookie Wayne Nix, who has since pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his role running a sprawling offshore sports-betting ring. Carter told agents he “could not remember placing any bets on the Lakers,” according to an investigative report summarizing the interview.
A spokesman for Carter and James confirmed the interview occurred. “In 2021 and before 38 states and the District of Columbia legalized sports betting, Maverick Carter was interviewed a single time by federal law enforcement regarding their investigation into Wayne Nix,” the spokesman, Adam Mendelsohn, said in a statement. “Mr. Carter was not the target of the investigation, cooperated, was never charged, and never contacted again on the matter.”
He declined to answer questions about James, saying Carter’s wagering “has nothing to do with him.” In the law enforcement interview, Carter denied placing bets for other people.
Carter, 42, is inexorably linked with James, who for two decades has been the largely scandal-free and business-savvy face of the NBA. Childhood friends from Akron, Ohio, they co-own a media company valued at hundreds of millions of dollars and are minority owners in the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool, the English soccer club.
The revelation that Carter gambled on NBA games comes as the league and broader American sports industry fully embrace legal betting — including the pending sale of an NBA team to a casino magnate — despite concerns about the integrity of the games.
Carter and his attorneys told investigators, the records show, that he placed approximately 20 bets on football and basketball games over the course of a year, with each bet ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. An indictment in the case states that in November 2019, amid the Lakers’ championship season, Nix’s partner Edon Kagasoff told a “business manager for a professional basketball player” via text that he could increase his wagers up to $25,000 on NBA games.
NBA policies bar players, team and league officials from gambling on NBA games, but the league does not have purview over business managers or agents. The National Basketball Players Association, the players union, bars agents but not business managers from betting on the NBA. Both the NBA and the players association declined to comment.
Nix and his partners had a client list full of athletes and others in sports, according to prosecutors, including former MLB star Yasiel Puig. But Nix had particularly deep connections in basketball, previously unreported records show.
Retired NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen also admitted to placing at least one bet with Nix, according to a separate investigative report reviewed by The Post. And Nix golfed in a member’s only tournament at Michael Jordan’s exclusive golf club in Florida, where other participants included multiple NBA team owners, in addition to stars in other sports, Hollywood, finance and the media. There are no indications in court records reviewed by The Post that Jordan, who until recently owned the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, bet on sports through Nix.
Jordan’s longtime agent David Falk declined to comment on what if any relationship Jordan has with Nix. Jordan’s business manager, Estee Portnoy, did not respond to a request for comment. Pippen did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Though Carter and Pippen were not previously identified in public court records, their interviews were referenced in a court dispute earlier this year between prosecutors and Puig. Puig is the only athlete client to be charged in connection with Nix’s operation, accused not of illegal betting but of lying to investigators, which he has denied. In legal filings, prosecutor Jeff Mitchell stated that Carter and Pippen made “arguably” or “technically” false statements during their interviews but then clarified them. Neither was charged. Puig’s trial is scheduled for January.
The Justice Department declined to respond to specific questions for this story. After a reporter sought comment from Mitchell concerning Carter and Pippen, the prosecutor filed a motion citing that request and seeking to seal more records in the case “to prevent further dissemination of the identities of other Nix clients.”
Nix and several others have been indicted in connection to the betting ring, in which a network of American bookies used a Costa Rican call center and website to place bets. Other than Puig, the indictments refer to but do not identify prominent figures in basketball, football and baseball who were allegedly among the illegal network’s 1,000-plus clients.
Nix’s own sentencing has been repeatedly delayed. His attorney, Steven Madison, declined to comment.
Carter and Pippen were among dozens of “non-target witnesses” whom prosecutors and agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the IRS interviewed starting in September 2021, court records show. By then, the agents had already searched the homes of several of the bookies, and at least six targets of the investigation had pledged to cooperate.
Pippen told the agents in a phone interview that he considered Nix a “good friend” and golfing buddy. He denied knowing that Nix was a bookie, according to the interview report, and said, vaguely, that he believed Nix, a former minor league baseball player, lived off “the fruits of his labor.”
gamjar
I don’t think its that big of a deal. 100 to 200k total. Happened in 2021 during an interview for someone else. Feds never contacted him again and not against nba policy.
>NBA policies bar players, team and league officials from gambling on NBA games, but the league does not have purview over business managers or agents.
interesting story but seems to ultimately be a nothing burger, no?
SouthShower6050
The only thing that would be illegal is if there is evidence Lebron asked Maverick Carter to place bets for him. Which it doesn’t sound like. I doubt they even transfer money ever to each other.
Also these bets are such small amounts.
kraftpunkk
They literally shove betting down our throats. Who cares.
Crafty-Document-3340
He’s out the posse.
rompskee
….and?
trueredtwo
The video call in the car is a hilarious image, I’m guessing he sits in the back with one attorney next to him and the other in the front passenger seat? Plus the driver being brought up while the call is ongoing
Rrypl
Bronny news also dropping today is a hilarious cover up
yoppee
Who cares this is a huge nothing burger. They run ads every five seconds during games to get you to bet. Kenny and Charles are placing bets while teams are shooting free throws. So what this guy bet too
aaden08
Finally we can legitimately ask, how does this impact LeBron James’s legacy?
LyonsKing12
Why should anyone care about this?
lordlazerface
“There are no indications in any court records reviewed by the post that Jordan, who until recently owned the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, bet on sports through Nix.”
Yep Michael Jordan doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to gamble and has no documented history of gambling, nothing to see here folks lol
doctor_of_drugs
ShockedPikachuFace.jpeg
But seriously, gambling has invaded the sport, and when watching on tv, I don’t need to have a billion things “sponsored by DRAFTKINGS, sign up NOW!”
So annoying. I’m a degenerate in other aspects of my life but gambling ain’t one of them so far.
beannet
There’s a Boston radio guy (Dan Lifshatz) that has been screaming from the mountain tops that LeBron has runners, and goes as far as to say he shaves points/tanks games for an edge on betting.
WhenItsHalfPastFive
First time I’m learning that NBA agents (not sure if Mav Carter counts as an agent) aren’t allowed to do sports gambling. Seems especially weird considering how hard the NBA has been promoting gambling as of late
Baconmazing
What is this story ? That a person bet on sports through a non-official method ? They had 0 impact on the game.
girth_br00ks
Seems like he knows a lot of things about the NBA that the normal everyday gambler wouldn’t and that seems like an advantage. Am i wrong?
dash_44
>Maverick Carter told the feds…
Damn!
Jr9065
The guy seriously stated he didn’t remember placing bets? Come on. This is bad
A_Texas_Hobo
Well shit….Lebron got some talking to do
angel2timez
Who cares?
Happy-North-9969
How stupid could you be?
Regex00
All I want to know is did he bet on the game where Bron fucked his ankle, stayed on the court long enough to hit a 3 to keep his streak of 10pts or more in a game running, then checked out lol
Choice_Marzipan5322
He did nothing wrong lol. Who cares?
wellbreastfed
Didn’t even imagine this possibility. America truly is the best place to be good at crime
WhoopingKing
time to be conspiratory
anyone here really think Mav Carter is running around placing bets with illegal bookers on nba games without LeBron knowing nothing about it all? lebrons god damn business partner whom he knows since highschool? his SVSM teammate?
it’s plausible and most likely what happened, but even then this should open up a whole other discussion about the relationship between LeBron and his business manager. what else is dude hiding from lebron?
nothing illegal, just shady as fuck
trueworldcapital
Lebron is def on Performance Enhancing Drugs
NothingNobodyGuy
Oh I like this so much
WubaDubImANub
Unironically how does this impact LeBron’s legacy
not_funny_sorry
Thousands lololol
LittleJerryLawler
First Andre Chase. Now Maverick Carter. Tony D’Angelo truly is the don of NXT.
kc90__
Just wanted to hit his ParLe bets
poorleno111
Hmm, so is this going to end up being another Lebron & Jordan commonality? Hope Lebron wasn’t involved in gambling or point shaving. Not a great look.
40 Comments
Holy crap…
[deleted]
Are we getting our first new gambling scandal?
Edit: Seems like grey area stuff at worst.
At some point we are going to get a big ass gambling scandal though. It’s only a matter of time.
This will get reposted without a paywall explaining that this is LeBron’s manager
> Carter told agents he “could not remember placing any bets on the Lakers,” according to an investigative report summarizing the interview.
He totally placed bets on the Lakers.
LOS ANGELES — Maverick Carter, the longtime manager and business partner of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, admitted to betting on NBA games through an illegal bookie, according to federal law enforcement records reviewed by The Washington Post.
Carter made the admission during a November 2021 interview with federal agents investigating bookie Wayne Nix, who has since pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his role running a sprawling offshore sports-betting ring. Carter told agents he “could not remember placing any bets on the Lakers,” according to an investigative report summarizing the interview.
A spokesman for Carter and James confirmed the interview occurred. “In 2021 and before 38 states and the District of Columbia legalized sports betting, Maverick Carter was interviewed a single time by federal law enforcement regarding their investigation into Wayne Nix,” the spokesman, Adam Mendelsohn, said in a statement. “Mr. Carter was not the target of the investigation, cooperated, was never charged, and never contacted again on the matter.”
He declined to answer questions about James, saying Carter’s wagering “has nothing to do with him.” In the law enforcement interview, Carter denied placing bets for other people.
Carter, 42, is inexorably linked with James, who for two decades has been the largely scandal-free and business-savvy face of the NBA. Childhood friends from Akron, Ohio, they co-own a media company valued at hundreds of millions of dollars and are minority owners in the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool, the English soccer club.
The revelation that Carter gambled on NBA games comes as the league and broader American sports industry fully embrace legal betting — including the pending sale of an NBA team to a casino magnate — despite concerns about the integrity of the games.
Carter and his attorneys told investigators, the records show, that he placed approximately 20 bets on football and basketball games over the course of a year, with each bet ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. An indictment in the case states that in November 2019, amid the Lakers’ championship season, Nix’s partner Edon Kagasoff told a “business manager for a professional basketball player” via text that he could increase his wagers up to $25,000 on NBA games.
NBA policies bar players, team and league officials from gambling on NBA games, but the league does not have purview over business managers or agents. The National Basketball Players Association, the players union, bars agents but not business managers from betting on the NBA. Both the NBA and the players association declined to comment.
Nix and his partners had a client list full of athletes and others in sports, according to prosecutors, including former MLB star Yasiel Puig. But Nix had particularly deep connections in basketball, previously unreported records show.
Retired NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen also admitted to placing at least one bet with Nix, according to a separate investigative report reviewed by The Post. And Nix golfed in a member’s only tournament at Michael Jordan’s exclusive golf club in Florida, where other participants included multiple NBA team owners, in addition to stars in other sports, Hollywood, finance and the media. There are no indications in court records reviewed by The Post that Jordan, who until recently owned the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, bet on sports through Nix.
Jordan’s longtime agent David Falk declined to comment on what if any relationship Jordan has with Nix. Jordan’s business manager, Estee Portnoy, did not respond to a request for comment. Pippen did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Though Carter and Pippen were not previously identified in public court records, their interviews were referenced in a court dispute earlier this year between prosecutors and Puig. Puig is the only athlete client to be charged in connection with Nix’s operation, accused not of illegal betting but of lying to investigators, which he has denied. In legal filings, prosecutor Jeff Mitchell stated that Carter and Pippen made “arguably” or “technically” false statements during their interviews but then clarified them. Neither was charged. Puig’s trial is scheduled for January.
The Justice Department declined to respond to specific questions for this story. After a reporter sought comment from Mitchell concerning Carter and Pippen, the prosecutor filed a motion citing that request and seeking to seal more records in the case “to prevent further dissemination of the identities of other Nix clients.”
Nix and several others have been indicted in connection to the betting ring, in which a network of American bookies used a Costa Rican call center and website to place bets. Other than Puig, the indictments refer to but do not identify prominent figures in basketball, football and baseball who were allegedly among the illegal network’s 1,000-plus clients.
Nix’s own sentencing has been repeatedly delayed. His attorney, Steven Madison, declined to comment.
Carter and Pippen were among dozens of “non-target witnesses” whom prosecutors and agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the IRS interviewed starting in September 2021, court records show. By then, the agents had already searched the homes of several of the bookies, and at least six targets of the investigation had pledged to cooperate.
Pippen told the agents in a phone interview that he considered Nix a “good friend” and golfing buddy. He denied knowing that Nix was a bookie, according to the interview report, and said, vaguely, that he believed Nix, a former minor league baseball player, lived off “the fruits of his labor.”
I don’t think its that big of a deal. 100 to 200k total. Happened in 2021 during an interview for someone else. Feds never contacted him again and not against nba policy.
>NBA policies bar players, team and league officials from gambling on NBA games, but the league does not have purview over business managers or agents.
Gift article https://wapo.st/414lxfh
interesting story but seems to ultimately be a nothing burger, no?
The only thing that would be illegal is if there is evidence Lebron asked Maverick Carter to place bets for him. Which it doesn’t sound like. I doubt they even transfer money ever to each other.
Also these bets are such small amounts.
They literally shove betting down our throats. Who cares.
He’s out the posse.
….and?
The video call in the car is a hilarious image, I’m guessing he sits in the back with one attorney next to him and the other in the front passenger seat? Plus the driver being brought up while the call is ongoing
Bronny news also dropping today is a hilarious cover up
Who cares this is a huge nothing burger. They run ads every five seconds during games to get you to bet. Kenny and Charles are placing bets while teams are shooting free throws. So what this guy bet too
Finally we can legitimately ask, how does this impact LeBron James’s legacy?
Why should anyone care about this?
“There are no indications in any court records reviewed by the post that Jordan, who until recently owned the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, bet on sports through Nix.”
Yep Michael Jordan doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to gamble and has no documented history of gambling, nothing to see here folks lol
ShockedPikachuFace.jpeg
But seriously, gambling has invaded the sport, and when watching on tv, I don’t need to have a billion things “sponsored by DRAFTKINGS, sign up NOW!”
So annoying. I’m a degenerate in other aspects of my life but gambling ain’t one of them so far.
There’s a Boston radio guy (Dan Lifshatz) that has been screaming from the mountain tops that LeBron has runners, and goes as far as to say he shaves points/tanks games for an edge on betting.
First time I’m learning that NBA agents (not sure if Mav Carter counts as an agent) aren’t allowed to do sports gambling. Seems especially weird considering how hard the NBA has been promoting gambling as of late
What is this story ? That a person bet on sports through a non-official method ? They had 0 impact on the game.
Seems like he knows a lot of things about the NBA that the normal everyday gambler wouldn’t and that seems like an advantage. Am i wrong?
>Maverick Carter told the feds…
Damn!
The guy seriously stated he didn’t remember placing bets? Come on. This is bad
Well shit….Lebron got some talking to do
Who cares?
How stupid could you be?
All I want to know is did he bet on the game where Bron fucked his ankle, stayed on the court long enough to hit a 3 to keep his streak of 10pts or more in a game running, then checked out lol
He did nothing wrong lol. Who cares?
Didn’t even imagine this possibility. America truly is the best place to be good at crime
time to be conspiratory
anyone here really think Mav Carter is running around placing bets with illegal bookers on nba games without LeBron knowing nothing about it all? lebrons god damn business partner whom he knows since highschool? his SVSM teammate?
it’s plausible and most likely what happened, but even then this should open up a whole other discussion about the relationship between LeBron and his business manager. what else is dude hiding from lebron?
nothing illegal, just shady as fuck
Lebron is def on Performance Enhancing Drugs
Oh I like this so much
Unironically how does this impact LeBron’s legacy
Thousands lololol
First Andre Chase. Now Maverick Carter. Tony D’Angelo truly is the don of NXT.
Just wanted to hit his ParLe bets
Hmm, so is this going to end up being another Lebron & Jordan commonality? Hope Lebron wasn’t involved in gambling or point shaving. Not a great look.