Heat’s Rozier won’t be paid; union objects. Attorney says he’s being ‘screwed’
In a departure from previous league policy, the Heat will not be required to pay Terry Rozier while he is on NBA leave awaiting trial after being charged with knowingly participating in a gambling scandal, two sources confirmed.
According to the NBA labor agreement, players placed on leave continue to be paid, but the NBA is directing the Heat to place Rozier’s salary in an interest-bearing account, pending the resolution of his legal case. This decision was made unilaterally by the NBA and not requested by the Heat, a source said.
The Heat will receive no immediate cap relief, but the team is in ongoing discussions with the league about that. There’s nothing imminent on that front.
The NBA’s players union said it will challenge the league’s decision.
“While we are in agreement with the league that upholding the intregrity of the game is of the utmost importance, their decision to place Terry on leave without pay is counter to the presumption of innocence and inconsistent with the terms of our Collective Bargaining agreement,” an NBA spokesperson said in a statement. “We plan to challenge their decision via the proper channels.”
Rozier’s absence leave Miami with 13 players on standard contracts. (Miami had only 10 on standard contracts available against Charlotte on Tuesday because of injuries to Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Kasparas Jakucionis.)
The Heat has an open 15th roster spot, but filling that (or replacing Rozier’s 14th spot) before mid-December would push the Heat over the luxury tax line. Miami is determined not to pay a luxury tax this season after paying a tax the previous two seasons.
The NBA’s decision on Rozier’s pay suggests that commissioner Adam Silver might not be inclined to void Rozier’s contract before the case is adjudicated.
Silver has the ability to void Rozier’s contract if the NBA determines he violated the league’s gambling rules. But a previous NBA investigation found no wrongdoing by Rozier.
Rozier, who is in the final year of his contract, is owed 24 payments of $1.1 million beginning Nov. 15. But those payments will not go to Rozier while his case is adjudicated.
Last Thursday, Rozier was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is accused of providing inside information to co-conspirators about his intentions to leave a game early due to injury, which enabled them to place large bets on him not reaching statistical thresholds.
There were two other developments in the past 24 hours:
▪ Per ESPN, the IRS filed the $8,218,211 federal income tax lien in Broward County, where Rozier has a home, in November 2023. The lien would have been filed after past due notices were sent to the taxpayer, Florida tax attorney Steven N. Klitzner told ESPN.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, said his client did not owe the IRS the $8.2 million listed on the lien.
“Terry never owed anyone $8 million,” Trusty told ESPN in a statement Wednesday morning. “He owed $9,000 of the total $8 million in taxes from 2021, and it has been paid. We just need the IRS to help remove the now-defunct lien.”
▪ Trusty appeared with Fox News anchor Will Cain on Tuesday. Here’s the transcript of that interview:
Cain: So, as I understand it, the allegations are that Terry told his friend De’Niro Laster that he would be taking himself out of a game I believe it’s March 23 of 2023. That friend is alleged to have sold the information to others, and those others placed bets on the prop bet of Terry scoring under, assisting under, shooting under the line set by various bet houses.
Now, I think let’s start with this. Is it true that Terry told a friend that he would be benching himself early in that game?
Trusty: Well, look, I don’t want to try every little nugget in front of the TV set.
But I will just tell you, confiding in a friend, a childhood friend, and saying, man I’m banged up, it’s the end of the season, we’re out of the playoffs, I think I’m going to sit early in this game, that’s not a crime. That’s nothing. That’s not even prohibited by any sort of statute.
That’s simply confiding in a friend. And maybe the league should create rules that say you can only tell a manager or trainer or your priest or your mom. But he told a friend. And whatever that friend did is not on Terry. That’s the difference between being indicted for the trophy of a professional basketball player and having solid evidence.
The allegations in the indictment itself are thin.
Cain: All right, but then the allegations go on not just to the fact that Terry would have shared that information with his friend, which you don’t deny, but you say, in and of itself, isn’t a crime, which I would imagine would be true — that’s not, in and of itself, a crime.
But the allegations are that that friend not only shared that with others to bet on the event of Terry pulling himself out of the game, but that the money came back, the proceeds from that bet came back to Terry Rozier’s friend De’Niro Laster, and he took that money to Rozier’s home.
Trusty: Yes, you know what’s interesting about that part, which we very much dispute? Even then, they don’t say, and therefore Terry was a part of this or Terry knew anything about it.
I mean, let me just tell you, Terry Rozier had a $100 million contract and a big shoe endorsement. This indictment actually suggests that he faked the injury, which is absurd. People knew about it. Medical people knew about it. Staff knew about it. Friends knew about it. This was a guy who was banged up after a long 82-game season. The Hornets are out of the playoffs. So he and others were telling the Hornets coaching staff, time to sit him, man. It’s a waste.
And so when he sat that game and the next five or six games to end the season, he actually lost money. I mean, it’s so contradictory to this kind of sexy gambling story. He lost money on his shoe contract because he didn’t play enough games because, like a lot of NBA starters, by game 70, he’s got all sorts of issues.
In this case, it was his foot. It was a chronic injury. It was just going to get worse if he played for no reason. So he took himself out. And I’m not here to defend De’Niro or anybody else in the indictment. There’s a bunch of people Terry doesn’t even know if he could pick him out of a lineup.
And, of course, there’s a whole separate indictment that’s much sexier in terms of mafia and Chauncey Billups and all the stuff that has nothing to do with Terry at all, except that they decided to lump it in for the press conference.
So, look, at the end of the day, I’m not seeing anything that makes me think that Terry should have been charged. This is a situation where a friend took information and ran with it. Terry didn’t do anything.
Cain: Two very fair points, Jim, in that the illegal poker scheme is not related to the allegations against Terry Rozier, even though they were revealed in the same press conference.
And it’s also a very legitimate point to make that Terry made a lot of money in the NBA, so much money that it would be irrational, it’s hard to understand why he would be leveraging prop bets for an extra 10 or a couple hundred, even thousand dollars.
That being said, I don’t know the motivations of most criminals. I -- that’s not to suggest Terry is a criminal, but far be it from me to suggest that the motivations are always rational of a criminal.
So, let me just put it to you bluntly. Did Terry ever trade information on his availability in an NBA game for the purposes of illegal betting?
Trusty: Yes, that’s an easy one to answer. It’s an absolute not. Never happened.
I think the prosecution basically knows it, but they liked the idea of having him as a trophy in this case to kind of mirror the bigger case with Chauncey Billups. And I hope over time they will start to realize maybe a little bit of buyer’s remorse. They bit off more than they can chew.
This is an innocent guy who’s getting completely screwed, to use some legal vernacular, in terms of his career. It’s an 11-year vet. He’s played 1,000 games. They’re latching onto a game where the NBA literally cleared him two years ago and trying to suggest that somehow they know better and that they know he was a conspirator, as opposed to just somebody who had a hurt foot.
Cain: OK, one last question for you, Jim.
Do you believe that the government might have more information at this point that has not yet been revealed? There is some questions about the relationship of previous players that have been busted. We talked about and played the video of what Gilbert Arenas said on his podcast. Jontay Porter was arrested some time ago.
I know that Terry was investigated by the NBA. I know that Terry was cleared by the NBA. Does it concern you there might be yet more information coming about what Terry may or -- may have done?
TRUSTY: I don’t think there’s going to be anything that’s particularly breathtaking, but, of course, we don’t have any discovery from the prosecution yet. We have got to start making demands and seeing what they have.
I tell you, you raised a good point, not about Gilbert Arenas, not about Jontay Porter, who my client didn’t know, but I am concerned the government might have crawled into bed with some horrific people to try to get their cooperation, violent people on the gambling side. Again, they’re not going to have anything that’s honest or direct about Terry.
But I am concerned that they’re really kind of making deals with the devil to try to work their way down, instead of the opposite direction.
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 11:48 AM.
