thelesterlee
This week, the NBA began an investigation into Toronto Raptors backup big man, Jontay Porter, following peculiar rises in action on prop bets where people were suddenly rushing to bet the under for a guy who’s barely able to hang onto an NBA roster.
Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter is out of the lineup and a subject of an NBA investigation into irregularities on prop betting involving him, sources tell @DavidPurdum, @ESPNWindhorst and me. Story soon. pic.twitter.com/DncBNbDptW
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 25, 2024
On January 26th against the Los Angeles Clippers, people rushed to bet Jontay Porter under props for 5.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists as well as a 0.5 under on made 3-pointers. Porter played only 4 minutes after re-aggravating an eye injury so all of the unders hit.
DraftKings reported the Porter unders were the biggest winner of the night. You’d have to be an absolute sicko to be betting on Jontay Porter. Either that or Jontay directly told you to do it.
Jontay Porter winners spiked again on March 20th. Porter played only 3 minutes before leaving early with a stummy ache. Not only did these bets randomly skyrocket again but people were betting up to $20,000 on JONTAY. PORTER.
Here’s Porter’s discord where he shares stock tips with randoms.
jontay has a discord where he tells people what to trade and bet on. i have to pay $49.99 to see the premium room, but in the main room they are discussing things the NBA and jontay, and ppl are thanking jontay for their winnings. this is wild, wild stuff pic.twitter.com/CnGDE4zx9p
— raptor moments (@raptormoments) March 26, 2024
I imagine it would be easy for him to give some betting tips to the weirdos who wanted the stock advice from the 12th man on the Grizzlies roster. It looks like he has a little secret audience of lames with disposable income hanging on his every word and he’s getting everybody paid.
This investigation shouldn’t take long.
And in the meantime, every single NBA podcast you listen to will talk about this story in between ad reads for various gambling companies while giving their terrible daily picks and offering a discount if you sign up using promo code “Jontay Porter is despicable” or whatever.
Betting on sports should 1000% be legal. It’s going to happen whether it’s legalized or not. Regulating the industry significantly reduces the harm by not allowing people to spend too much at once. DraftKings won’t even give you your money back if you make more than like, $20 but more importantly, DraftKings won’t wait outside your house with a baseball bat to smash your thumbs.
But I also believe sex work should be legal but that doesn’t mean ESPN should be pointing me to the best brothels in my city all day long.
There’s a massive difference between something being legal and something being constantly advertised and romanticized 24/7. I used to smoke cigarettes. It would’ve been hell trying to quit if every piece of sports content I consumed was telling me how delicious Marlboros are and offering me discounts on them.
And I want to make it very clear, I would take a bag from a gambling company right now if they offered. These companies are sending direct deposits left and right to anyone who will say their names. I understand why everyone in sports media is shoving gambling down our throats.
But in doing so, they remove the ability to judge anyone, including the players, participating in the product they are begging people to participate in.
What should happen to Jontay Porter?
Jontay Porter is barely an NBA player. He’s essentially in the NBA because he’s 6-foot-11 and his brother is Michael Porter Jr so teams have tricked themselves into believing there’s some untapped potential in there.
I don’t know if the NBA will ban him for life because they don’t have to. There was like a 95% chance JP wouldn’t have been on a roster next season regardless of this incident.
As long as all sports continue to waterboard us with betting odds, I won’t pretend to be mad at someone trying to hit a quick lick before his NBA career ends. This might just be something GMs have to consider when filling out their rosters now. “Will this guy purposely miss threes to hit the under for all of his discord nerds?”
Over the course of an 82-game season, I don’t care about a random bench player checking in, doing nothing, and then pretending to be sick to leave early with no stats in the middle of March. Who gives a shit?
The NBA will most likely create an hour-long TNT special sponsored by FanDuel before publicly executing Porter at midcourt in WasteYourMoneyOnCryptoCurrency Arena.
A lot of people are going to act like Jontay Porter deserves the death penalty before and after their Prize Picks ads.
All this story does for me is let me know if the Porter brothers were 5-foot-10, they’d be in some sort of assisted living facility because they’d be too dumb to take care of themselves.
Is Jontay Porter the dumbest NBA player ever? Leave a comment below. Respond on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee. Let me know if you think Jontay Porter was really sick in that game and this is all a coincidence.
