Former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter has described being pulled into illegal credit betting and then into a plan to manipulate his own statistics, according to a New Yorker profile by Nick Berardini.
The magazine’s account, published in the Nov. 16, 2026, issue and shared by The New Yorker on X, says Porter became deeply involved with FanDuel and later found himself “in debt to the wrong people.” The only way out, the magazine wrote, “seemed” to be gambling on himself.
According to The New Yorker, Porter in 2022 asked a fitness influencer named Johnny Kalaj if he knew bookies who would let him bet on credit. Kalaj connected him with a group he described, in threatening terms, as dangerous. The magazine reported that Porter lost more than $160,000 within two weeks. When he did not pay, Kalaj texted that “these are the worst people” and, when Porter asked if they would kill him, wrote that they did not “deal in violence” but something “worse,” including framing him with planted material and alerting police, The New Yorker said. Kalaj later claimed he had paid the debt by selling two expensive watches and told Porter, “What I just did, you fucking owe me.” After a year without repayment, he threatened to go public with Porter’s gambling, the magazine reported. Kalaj did not respond to The New Yorker’s requests for comment.
Berardini wrote that Porter dealt most often with another bookie Kalaj introduced: Ammar Awawdeh. Porter said that about a week after his Raptors debut he had dinner with Awawdeh in New York, their only in-person meeting, and that Awawdeh suggested a “special”: faking an injury or illness so “unders” on his stats would hit, “like a boxer taking a dive.” Awawdeh told the magazine that was Porter’s idea. Either way, they agreed on a plan, The New Yorker reported, with bets to be spread across sportsbooks, including offshore sites, so Porter could take a cut and pay his debts.
A companion New Yorker video says Porter had already amassed a couple hundred thousand dollars in credit debts and was receiving threats when the plan took shape. It describes pressure to repeat the scheme after the first attempt, with bookies saying they could not get enough money down because of betting limits. The magazine also noted that some details of Porter’s extortion account “didn’t add up,” including that he never spoke directly with the organized-crime figures he believed were behind the bookies. Planning messages, it said, were sent on Telegram and later deleted.
The NBA banned Porter for life in April 2024 after finding he had shared nonpublic information, limited his participation in games to affect bets and wagered on NBA games, the league announced. Federal court papers later described messages to alleged co-conspirators during Raptors games, according to subsequent reporting on those filings.
Porter pleaded guilty in July 2024 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was released on a $250,000 bond, CNN reported, citing the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn. Prosecutors then estimated a guideline range of 41 to 51 months, with a statutory maximum of 20 years. A later request to travel to play in Greece was denied, according to coverage of that court filing. The federal docket shows sentencing has been repeatedly postponed, including an adjournment “sine die” in December 2025. The New York Post, summarizing the same New Yorker profile, said he is still awaiting sentencing.
In October 2025, the Justice Department announced charges in a broader betting and poker-rigging case involving Awawdeh’s circle, The New Yorker reported. Those allegations against other defendants remain for the courts. Porter’s own account, as told to Berardini, is that debts and pressure from informal bookies led him to rig his performance. He has already admitted, in his guilty plea, to joining that wire-fraud conspiracy.
