After initially maintaining his innocence, NBA champion Damon Jones has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after giving insider information before it was made public to benefit gamblers.
Jones became the first NBA figure in the scandal to plead guilty — he was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Reading a prepared statement to the court, he acknowledged that he conspired with others to defraud sports betting companies by using "insider information that I obtained as a result of my relationships as a former player."
Jones told someone close to him that a "prominent" player on the Los Angeles Lakers, widely speculated to be LeBron James, would not play Feb. 9, 2023, before the information was public. Jones was an assistant for the team at the time.