{"id":327246,"date":"2025-10-23T19:45:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327246\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T19:45:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:45:21","slug":"lebron-james-injury-information-leaked-to-bettors-indictment-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327246\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James injury information leaked to bettors, indictment suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) prepares to shoot a foul shot against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena on October 22, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. <\/p>\n

Gina Ferazzi | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images<\/p>\n

A new bombshell indictment<\/a> criminally charging former NBA<\/a> player Damon Jones<\/a> suggests that while affiliated with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, Jones leaked information about the injury status of superstar LeBron James<\/a> to sports bettors before a February 2023 game.<\/p>\n

James is not accused of wrongdoing in the federal indictment,<\/a> which alleges that Jones, 49, and others defrauded betting companies.<\/p>\n

Jones and James previously played together on the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. Jones was acting as an unofficial coach for the Lakers at the time of the February 2023 game in Los Angeles that is mentioned in the indictment.<\/p>\n

A James spokesman declined to comment to CNBC.<\/p>\n

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The indictment refers to an unidentified Player 3.<\/p>\n

The document says that Jones “was a teammate and coach of a prominent player,” who was Player 3.<\/p>\n

The indictment says that Jones, on the morning of a Feb. 9 game between the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> “sent a text message to Co-Conspirator 9, writing: ‘Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [Player 3] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat … now!”<\/p>\n

Coach Damon Jones looks on during the game during the 2025 G League Elite Camp on May 11, 2025 at Windtrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.<\/p>\n

Jeff Haynes | National Basketball Association | Getty Images<\/p>\n

“At the time Jones provided this non-public information about Player 3 to Co-Conspirator 9, Player 3 was not ruled out on the NBA’s injury report for the” game, the indictment says.<\/p>\n

James ended up sitting out that Feb. 9 game with a lower-body injury, to his ankle<\/p>\n

The indictment says, “Due to a lower body injury, Player 3 did not play in the February 9 Game.”<\/p>\n

The only other active Laker player to sit out that game with an injury was Scotty Pippen Jr., who did not have a lower-body injury. Pippen was in the concussion protocol for the game.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee defeated the Lakers in that game by a score of 115 to 106.<\/p>\n

The Bucks went into the game as a favorite by an average of 8 points, according to various odds sites.<\/p>\n

A person familiar with James’ situation said James did not know his information would be used for betting.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by CNBC’s <\/strong>Jessica Golden<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) prepares to shoot a foul shot against the Minnesota Timberwolves at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":327247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76,81,4219,51,10001,224,6375,50,80,62,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-327246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-breaking-news-politics","9":"tag-business-news","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-laws","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-milwaukee","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115425202956958174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}