More bad news for the Toronto raptors: their head coach started crying when he realized that four of his best players had chosen to terminate their high-paying contracts.
Jontay Porter, 24, was viewed by the Toronto Raptors as a possible long-term fit; however, he has since been suspended from the NBA due to his infraction of the gambling regulations of the league.
Toronto, Ontario, CAN; forward Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors | Aaron Rose | April 17, 2024 – January 15, 2024
Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter (11), / John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports, January 15, 2024, Toronto, Ontario, CAN
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No, he was never going to be the organization’s shining light. He was never going to be much more than Toronto’s backup center, at best. However, that would have been unfair to a player with a two-way deal.
After the NBA’s investigation into the 24-year-old center’s peculiar betting activities came to a close, the league banned Porter. The NBA said that Porter bet on NBA games while he was a member of the Raptors, limited his own performance in at least one game, and revealed private information about his health to a known gambler.
“While traveling with the Raptors or Raptors 905, the NBA G League affiliate of the Raptors, Porter used an associate’s internet betting account to place at least 13 wagers on NBA games between January and March of 2024. The league discovered that the bets had a total value of $54,094, ranging in size from $15 to $22,000.
There is no proof that Porter placed a wager on In a multi-leg parlay that Porter ultimately lost, he did wager on the Raptors to lose at least one of the games in which he participated.
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment,” Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, said in a statement. “Legal sports betting increases openness, which aids in spotting suspicious or unusual activity, but it also raises serious questions about how adequate the current regulatory system is, particularly with regard to the kinds of bets available on our players and games. collaborating closely with all pertinent parties throughout the stakeholders in the business, we’ll keep doing our hard work to protect our league and game.
For the Raptors, it’s only the most recent in a string of bad circumstances involving players who were previously regarded as potential by the team. Otto Porter Jr. was never able to remain healthy for the Raptors, while Christian Koloko was lost to a health problem early this season in Toronto.
Jontay Porter and Koloko were “two good finds for us that fit our program,” according to Raptors president Masai Ujiri. “Maybe we were unlucky in some kind of way.”
It probably would have been beneficial to look into Porter’s past more thoroughly. Porter, according to the Action Network, had a FanDuel VIP account that he used to place over 1,000 bets totaling millions of dollars in salary before being a member of the team. Additionally, according to Adam Laskaris of the Daily Hive, Porter ran a Twitter account where he offered gambling advice.
“We did all due diligence and I think from all the reports and everything we had, I think this was nothing we could know about,” Ujiri said regarding Porter. “We go out there and attempt to conduct each person’s due diligence as thoroughly as possible. We also carried that out with Jontay.”
It’s conceivable that Porter would have returned to Toronto the following season if he had remained fit. He possessed some floor-spacing skills, some defensive movement, and was a passable big man in reserve. It’s quite possible that he might have  minimum of $2.1 million is involved in the contract.
