The Charlotte Hornets are sending a 2026 second-round draft pick to the Miami Heat to resolve a dispute over Terry Rozier being under NBA and federal investigations over alleged gambling conspiracy during the teams’ trade in 2024.
The pick will be the more favorable of either Golden State‘s or Denver‘s second-round selections.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver in December said the league would look into the possibility of giving Miami some sort of “satisfactory relief” because Rozier currently can’t play.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” Silver said at the time.
It was a multilayered issue for the league and the Heat, given that Rozier’s $26.6 million salary took up about 17% of the team’s cap space — and that the team still owes the Hornets a first-round pick in either 2027 or 2028 to satisfy the terms of the trade that brought Rozier to Miami.
It’s unclear who was aware that Rozier was under federal investigation when the Heat made the trade with the Hornets.
Rozier pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
Federal prosecutors allege Rozier told an associate he would remove himself early in a March 2023 game, when he was with the Hornets. Rozier’s associate then allegedly sold the information to gamblers, who proceeded to bet more than $200,000 on the under on Rozier’s statistics in the game.
An arbitrator in February ruled in favor of Rozier in a salary dispute with the NBA that arose after he was indicted in the gambling investigation, sources told ESPN.
The Heat and NBA agreed to put Rozier’s salary for the 2025-26 season in escrow after Rozier was arrested and indicted in October as part of a federal gambling investigation that also led to charges against Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups.
The NBPA appealed the agreement to withhold his salary, which is approximately $26.6 million.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and David Purdum and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
