NEW YORK (AP) — Former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier wants to play in the NBA while he fights sports gambling charges that sidelined him last season. Bail conditions that bar him from contact with certain players and limit his travel could complicate his potential return.
U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall on Wednesday denied a defense request to modify Rozier’s bail conditions so he can practice and play with potential witnesses as long as they don't talk about the case. The judge said it would be impossible to police Rozier’s on-court conversations.
She admonished Rozier for already violating the no-contact provision of his $3 million bond by sending a text message to a person he was told not to communicate with. Rozier was contacting the person to tell the person he was on the no-contact list, DeArcy Hall said.
"What that tells me is that he believes he knows better than the court," DeArcy Hall said at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court. Rozier, she said, "violated the court’s trust with that text message."
Rozier averaged 3.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in 10 NBA seasons, four and a half of which he spent with the Charlotte Hornets before he was traded to Miami in 2024. He remains a free agent after the Heat released him in April. An arbitrator ruled in February that the Heat had to pay Rozier his $26.6 million salary for last season.
Rozier, 32, is scheduled to stand trial in February on bribery and conspiracy charges after federal prosecutors say he took a $70,000 payoff to help gamblers cash in with a tip that he would leave a March 2023 game early, citing a lingering lower leg injury. He hadn't been listed on the team’s injury report and neither the public nor sportsbooks knew of his plan, prosecutors said.
Rozier's friend Deniro "Niro" Laster, who is also charged, shared or sold the information to others, who placed more than $250,000 in bets that his points, assists and other totals would be lower than what the sportsbooks had set as betting lines, federal prosecutors said.
Rozier has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have asked DeArcy Hall to dismiss the case. They are also seeking to have it moved from New York to Miami. Rozier recently shook up his defense team, hiring David Markus, whose clients have included Ghislaine Maxwell, as his lead attorney, replacing President Donald Trump's ex-lawyer Jim Trusty.
"I wish we were starting trial in this case because Terry is innocent and we want to show the world that he had no involvement in this," Markus told reporters after the hearing.
Rozier was arrested last October in a sweeping federal gambling investigation that has netted more than three dozen arrests. Last week, former NBA star Malik Beasley pleaded not guilty to charges that he altered his play in certain games in 2024 to enrich sports bettors and ease his own debts.
After his arrest, Rozier was barred from any contact with the Heat or the Hornets. Prosecutors later removed the Heat and, after Rozier's lawyers complained, agreed last month to narrow his contact ban to include a list of people who were with the Hornets when Rozier played for them in 2023.
Markus said that without further modifications, NBA teams could construe his bail conditions as "a prohibition" on him playing in the league.
"It is not a directive that he cannot play in the NBA," DeArcy Hall said, but "unfortunately there is a consequence of being under indictment. That’s the reality."
Rozier is barred from contact with at least a dozen potential witnesses, including seven ex-Hornets teammates who now play for four other teams.
Markus proposed that Rozier have a lawyer present to monitor any on-court interactions, but DeArcy Hall said that was a non-starter because a lawyer watching from the sidelines wouldn’t be able to hear what’s being said.
"Unless you're suiting up, it doesn't help me," the judge said.
Markus also asked DeArcy Hall to lift a ban on Rozier leaving the U.S. so that he could go to Canada to play the Toronto Raptors if he were signed to an NBA team.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin Farrell said that request was premature and suggested Rozier might try to flee prosecution if he’s allowed to leave the country. Markus called that argument "out of bounds" and said Rozier would never sacrifice his career or his ability to see his family for a life on the lam.
After more discussion, DeArcy Hall said she'll wait until Rozier signs an NBA contract before ruling on his travel. The judge told Markus that another defendant had recently sought her permission to play basketball in Greece. Her response in that case: denied.
