LeBron James has spoken about his manager and business partner, Maverick Carter, allegedly admitting to betting on NBA games through an illegal bookie.
The Lakers star said he wasn’t aware that Carter had placed bets illegally, but doesn’t seem too concerned about the allegations or how they look for him.
“No,” James said when asked if he was concerned about the perception of Carter’s situation, given his relationship with him. “Because that’s the only reason it got any legs in the first place, because he’s so close to me. But Maverick’s his own man and at the end of the day, gambling is legal. I mean, you can go on your phone right now and do whatever you want. And he has no affiliation with the NBA or NFL, so, he can do what he wants to do.”
Carter admitted to placing bets with an illegal bookie named Wayne Nix in an interview with federal agents in 2021, according to The Washington Post’s Gus Garcia-Roberts.
“Carter and his attorneys told investigators, the records show, that he placed approximately 20 bets on football and basketball games over the course of a year, with each bet ranging from $5,000 to $10,000,” Garcia-Roberts wrote. “An indictment in the case states that in November 2019, amid the Lakers’ championship season, [Wayne] Nix’s partner Edon Kagasoff told a ‘business manager for a professional basketball player’ via text that he could increase his wagers up to $25,000 on NBA games.”
Nix was involved in an offshore sports-betting ring and has since pled guilty to charges against him.
Carter admitted that Nix was the man he did his dealings through.
“Carter acknowledged that he knew Nix was involved in gambling and said Nix owed him money from both poker and football,” Garcia-Roberts wrote. “The 20 bets he placed through Nix were on college football, the NFL and the NBA, Carter told the agents, and he said he would text Nix his bets or place them directly through Sand Island Sports, the Costa Rican website Nix used. Carter said he didn’t know of Edon Kagasoff.”
As LeBron’s manager rather than agent, Carter technically didn’t do anything wrong by the NBA or National Basketball Players Association, considering he has no affiliation with them.
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