Congress Requests Briefing From NBA, Commissioner Adam Silver ‘Deeply Disturbed’
Posted on: October 25, 2025, 03:19h.
Last updated on: October 25, 2025, 03:19h.
- Congress has asked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to testify about the league’s illegal gambling scandal
- Several current and former players and coaches were named in FBI indictments
Congress is demanding answers from the NBA for what’s emerging as the biggest sports betting scandal since Pete Rose was found to have bet on baseball games he managed and played more than four decades ago.
This week, the FBI unsealed two federal indictments naming more than 30 defendants who allegedly engaged in an unlawful sports betting and gambling operation, with the rigged poker component thought to have involved New York crime families. Several current and former NBA players, including Terry Rozier, NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones, were named in the charges.
This is the insider trading saga for the NBA,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday. “It’s not thousands of dollars. It’s not tens of thousands of dollars. It’s not even millions of dollars. We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft, and robbery.”
Rozier is accused of throwing games and faking injuries for the benefit of his illegal sports gambling cohorts. Jones is accused of selling inside information about the status of key players, including LeBron James, to bettors looking for an edge on the books. Billups is alleged to have participated in an illegal poker scheme with mob ties.
Congress Demands Answers
On Friday, the bipartisan leaders of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver requesting that he testify before the panel, which has jurisdiction over interstate commerce, consumer protection, and sports, regarding the federal sports fixing and illegal gambling indictments.
The committee is seeking the NBA’s insights about the insider sports betting trading, which actions it intends to take to limit the disclosure of nonpublic information for illegal purposes, and whether the league’s Code of Conduct effectively prohibits such illegal activity. The committee members are also asking for an explanation of how the NBA’s current regulations might have allowed the matter at hand to be executed, and if the league is reevaluating the terms of its sports betting partnerships.
The hearing will presumably also discuss player props, or bets in which a player can singlehandedly influence.
Silver ‘Deeply Disturbed’
Silver was interviewed about the FBI bombshell during Friday night’s game between the Boston Celtics at the New York Knicks.
My initial reaction was that I was deeply disturbed. There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition. I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting,” Silver said on Amazon Prime Video, during the streaming service’s first NBA broadcast.
“I apologize to our fans that we are all dealing with this situation,” Silver said.
Silver also answered for the NBA’s unfruitful probe of Rozier’s illegal conduct, as alleged by the FBI, when sportsbooks in 2023 tipped the league off to suspicious betting activity surrounding his player props.
We frankly couldn’t find anything,” Silver said. “Terry cooperated. He gave the league his phone. He sat down for an interview. We ultimately concluded that were was insufficient evidence despite the aberrational behavior to move forward.”
Silver concluded by saying Rozier hasn’t been convicted of anything, but he acknowledged that “it doesn’t look good.”
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