ORLANDO, Fla. — So here we are. Opening week of the NBA season and instead of talking about dunks, rivalries or who’s going to hoist the trophy in June … we’re talking about perp walks, mob ties, fixed bets and whether our beloved league is turning into an episode of “The Sopranos.” Or worse, “The Godfather Part IV” — a sequel no one asked for.

The NBA’s monumental gambling scandal didn’t come out of nowhere. It grew out of the NBA’s own arrogance — specifically, its shameless tanking and “load management” culture, where perfectly healthy star players sit out games while fans are left holding thousand-dollar tickets in a VIP-priced gambling fraud.

The league told us load management protects players and prevents injuries. Turns out what it really protects is insider bettors.

Because if nobody knows whether a star is going to play until an hour before the game — there’s money to be made by those who know before the betting line moves.

And shocker: someone knew.

Let’s localize this disaster. A 2023 Orlando Magic game against the Cavaliers is now a component in a federal indictment. According to prosecutors, a “co-conspirator” learned from an unnamed Magic starter (who is not accused of any wrongdoing) that the Magic weren’t going to play their regular starting lineup that night.

This was hours before fans in the arena found out. Before broadcasters did. Before sportsbooks adjusted the line.

Someone close to that NBA conspirator placed an $11,000 bet that Cleveland would cover the original spread. The Cavaliers won by 24.

Boom. Free money.

Not because of Xs and Os. Because of “rest.” Because of the NBA’s own broken policy of teams intentionally losing games to improve their draft position. Because healthy players sat out while gamblers ate.

And we’re supposed to believe this is all some big surprise?

Load Management = Point Spread Manipulation Management.

In other words, the NBA injury report might as well be a Vegas code sheet:

A “questionable” injury designation that leads to a “game-time decision” is just another way of saying, “Insiders get rich.”

The league treats player availability like the nuclear launch codes — secret until they decide to grace the public with the truth minutes before tipoff. Meanwhile, insiders whisper early, bets get placed, the lines move and the NBA shrugs.

If you know who is sitting, you are printing money.

It’s so bad that even the biggest name in the sport — LeBron James — has reportedly been dragged into it. The federal indictment alleges that Damon Jones, LeBron’s former teammate and later an unofficial assistant coach with the Lakers, texted a co-conspirator before a Lakers game against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2023 to “get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight” because a prominent player (believed to be James) wasn’t going to play. Jones allegedly added via text: “Bet enough so Djones can eat [too] now!!!”

James did not play in the game. Milwaukee beat the Lakers, 115-106.

LeBron himself is not accused of wrongdoing. But the fact remains: his availability became a betting weapon before the rest of the world knew. If the biggest name in basketball can have his health status exploited then the floodgates are wide open.

And let’s not forget, LeBron’s business manager was interviewed by feds four years ago in a separate case about betting through an illegal bookie. Was this another instance of LeBron being surrounded by people who smell opportunity?

You have to wonder how diligent the NBA has been in trying go uncover this information. The Heat’s Terry Rozier, the headliner of the scandal, was actually investigated by the league months ago. The league cleared him.

How does the NBA — with all its supposed integrity mechanisms — investigate a case that later becomes one of the biggest sports betting scandals since legalization and find nothing?

Cynics will say that the league is either astonishingly incompetent … or it didn’t want to know.

Either scenario is terrifying.

What makes it even worse is that the feds didn’t just bust Rozier for allegedly supplying inside information and manipulating his statistics, they tied Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups to the La Cosa Nostra mafia families. That’s right, Billups is tied to the kinds of guys who don’t say “please” when collecting gambling debts.

Billups is charged with luring high rollers into rigged poker games, using hidden X-ray equipment under the tables and clandestine cameras in the poker chip trays. High-stakes gambling backed by old-school mobsters.

Let me say that again: the mob is involved.

Professional basketball now shares a Venn diagram with the Gambinos.

Meanwhile, if you’re an NBA fan, you are the sucker in this system. You buy a ticket to see LeBron and other stars play and you get a G-League showcase instead.

Meanwhile, a few guys with burner phones and inside access rake in cash while you watch the backups.

You scream, “Refund!” The NBA says, “Nope. Read the fine print.”

And you better believe the fallout for the NBA is just getting started. As ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith suggests, this scandal has the political sharks circling. It is the perfect chance for President Donald Trump — a man who has never missed a chance to swing at NBA stars who lean Democrat — to position himself as the savior of the fan.

As we know, Trump loves two things: fights and attention. And the NBA just handed him both. Don’t be surprised if he’s soon demanding congressional hearings into sports gambling corruption “to protect fans from crooked players.”

The NBA won’t like it. But they invited it.

If the NBA wants to try to salvage its reputation, here’s the plan:

— Force the legal sports betting companies — companies the league is financially in bed with — to ban all player prop bets in which players can easily manipulate their own statistics. The league should sever all relationships and withhold all official data and stats from the companies unless they agree.

— Ban resting all healthy players.

— Make injury reporting transparent and timely. No more vague game-time decisions.

— Audit every rest night and mid-game exit

— Impose massive penalties for leaking availability info

Why?

Because player prop bets are the easiest numbers to manipulate.

And because tanking and load management isn’t protecting players so much as it is enriching cheaters.

Basketball fans deserve to watch basketball, not a shadow economy where mobsters, bettors and shady insiders know more about who’s playing than the customers paying top dollar.

The NBA must decide and decide now:

Are you still a professional sports league?

Or a back-alley sports book?

©2025 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.