00:00LeBron James' name has been dragged into the massive NBA gambling scandal, but I want to make it clear that as of right now, while we're recording this, LeBron is not a part of nor had anything to do directly with the scandal.
00:14But here's what we know. According to court docs and law enforcement sources, details of LeBron's injury status were allegedly sold by his former teammate, friend, and coach, Damon Jones, as part of a massive prop betting scheme.
00:29So Jones and James became close friends when they both were with the Cavaliers from 2005 to 2008, and they remained close when Jones' NBA career concluded.
00:40In fact, when LeBron returned to Cleveland back in 2014, he actually helped a retired Jones land a job as his personal shooting coach.
00:48So fast forward to the 2022-2023 season, where Jones was an unofficial assistant coach for the Lakers during LeBron's fifth season in L.A.
00:59Sources told the Post that Jones sent a message to one of the betting ring members on February 9, 2023, urging him to place a large bet on the Lakers' opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, because James would be out with an injury that night.
01:13Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out, is what the text message read.
01:19So the player, whom sources identified as James, didn't play that night after reporting a lower body injury and the Lakers' loss, but it didn't end there.
01:29Jones also separately received $2,500 for hawking a supposed injury tip, which turned out to be wrong about another Lakers player before a January 15, 2024 game against the OKC Thunder.
01:44So court papers say that Jones claimed to have learned from the Lakers trainer that one of the Lakers' best players during the 2023-24 season was injured and only going to play a limited amount of minutes that night.
01:58He then told co-defendant Eric Spook-Ernest, who shared the tip with an online sports bettor, who then placed a $100,000 bet against the Lakers.
02:08However, the star player actually played in the game after all, and the Lakers won 112-105.
02:16The mystery player was not named, but the Lakers were led in scoring that night by multi-time All-Star Anthony Davis, who scored 27 points in the win.
02:25The bettor was allegedly upset with the bad intel and wanted Jones to pay back the $2,500, but Jones insisted that he had still received credible non-public information regarding the unnamed player that day.
02:39It's unclear if Jones returned the money or not.
02:42More details and news are going to continue to break surrounding this massive and damaging sports betting scandal, and we'll be sure to keep you posted with around-the-clock updates.
02:55Thank you very much.
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