THE BEGINNINGS OF A GAMBLING SCAM, WITH LEBRON’S CLOSE FRIEND AT PLAY
Maverick Carter is a longtime buddy and business partner of LeBron James, and by betting money on basketball with an illegal bookmaker, we’re left to wonder how he obtained his sacred information
Here’s your worst-case synopsis: If LeBron James told his longstanding friend and manager, Maverick Carter, about a matter involving the Los Angeles Lakers — and Carter went ahead and bet on a Lakers game via an illegal bookie — then the NBA has America’s ugliest mess involving a sports superstar and business partner.
A snake would be using his megapartner’s advice. James could be accused by the commissioner, Adam Silver, of helping his buddy make money. This would be not only the first scandalous offense against James, after 21 years of clean public life, but would open a shameful door to the dirt happening behind the scenes in our wretched legal gambling age.
How many other players, in all leagues, also are dropping private team hints so friends can pick up thousands?
No one is certain this situation is at play. But suddenly, as a nation awaits a tarnished gambling narrative, feel free to wonder why Carter was wagering with Wayne Nix and his offshore betting ring and placed about 20 bets on basketball and football during a year’s span. Or, at least, that’s what Carter told investigators, according to a Washington Post story, with bets centered in the range of $5,000 to $10,000 involving Nix, who since has pleaded guilty to charges. The fact Carter is familiar with Nix should be mayhem for James, who had been spending Thursday celebrating his son’s return to USC’s basketball program after suffering cardiac arrest in July.
Now, we’re wondering why Carter told federal agents in November 2021 that he “could not remember placing any bets on the Lakers.” How about answering, “No, I did not place any bets on the Lakers,” but by leaving open the pitiful possibility? He only makes the mind race about what he knew about the Lakers, which only makes the mind race about what James could have told him.
The heart pauses when a spokesperson for Carter and James — disturbing in its own right — told the Post that Carter’s interview with the agent took place. “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,” 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.” But when Mendelsohn said Carter’s betting “has nothing to do with (James),” he isn’t sure. Even at that point in time, before gambling had swelled to out-of-control status, Carter should have stayed away from a situation where the league prohibits players, team and league officials — and the National Basketball Players Association bars agents — from gambling on games. He didn’t know any better, oddly.
He should have, as someone wound tightly not only with James but Rich Paul, the league’s most powerful superagent. Said James, claiming he’d only recently heard about Carter’s discussion with the agent: “Maverick's his own man and at the end of the day, gambling is legal. I mean, you can go on your phone right now and do whatever you want. And he has no affiliation with the NBA or NFL, so, he can do what he wants to do.” It’s not that simple, as we suspect he knows.
Also involved with Nix is Scottie Pippen, who retired from the NBA in 2004 and should have refrained from placing at least one bet. But then, same goes for some of the league’s owners, who were joined by Nix at Michael Jordan’s select golf club in Florida for a golf tournament. The owners, who included Jordan at the time, weren’t aware of Nix’s bad vibes? As far back as 2019, Nix’s partner, Edon Kagasoff, texted a “business manager for a professional basketball player” that his bets could be raised to $25,000 on NBA games. No one knew of Wayne’s World?
By now, given his history of gambling, Jordan should have been aware as owner of the Charlotte Hornets to invite Nix onto his sacred property with honchos. That quickly, Jordan and James find themselves in an unorthodox relationship. Said James, trying to play down the story: “I mean, it’s weird that some of our regular fans that love the game kind of only care about a parlay now. I guess that’s the word everybody is using. It’s kind of taken some of the integrity out of the game because people are kind of really only caring about the betting. I mean, it’s always (happened). I mean, listen, people have been betting on games since Arnold Rothstein set the bet in the 1920s on the World Series. Come on, come on. So, it’s been going on for years. But it’s legalized now. Is it legalized in every state now? The majority, right? I think it’s in 38-plus states. So, I mean, to each his own.”
Chances are, James and Silver will keep discarding the story. Carter will carry on and continue to be seen on James’ TV show. They all want the league to carry on in high fashion, as broadcast media prepare historic bids with gambling a big part of the entertainment fray. But the rest of us now have a marker on how games can be bet on the all-knowing end.
Next time LeBron quickly rests in a game, or the Lakers are blown out in the first quarter, ask yourself if Maverick Carter knew about a development. If he did? Let’s assume he knows much more than a fan in the upper deck, which could be the gnarly case throughout sports in 2023.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.