Terry Rozier’s lawyers want the NBA’s full investigation file before his trial, saying the league gave up its privilege

Terry Rozier’s lawyers have put the NBA’s own investigation at the center of his federal gambling case. In a motion filed Thursday in Brooklyn, they asked U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall to stop prosecutors from telling a jury what Rozier said to the league’s lawyers, unless the NBA first hands the defense its full investigative report and the notes from those interviews.

The league has refused to turn those documents over, saying they are privileged. The defense says the NBA gave up that protection when it summarized Rozier’s interviews for both sides, announced its findings in public and agreed to provide a witness for the government. The trial is set to start Feb. 8, 2027.

What the NBA did in 2023

The case is about one game: Rozier’s Hornets against the Pelicans on March 23, 2023. Prosecutors say Rozier told his friend Deniro Laster he would leave that game early, and that the tip was sold to bettors who placed under bets on his stats. Rozier played less than 10 minutes and left with what his lawyers say was a real foot injury. He has pleaded not guilty.

The league learned about unusual betting on Rozier that month and opened its own investigation, run by outside counsel. According to the motion, those lawyers interviewed Rozier several times without a lawyer of his own present and without telling him in advance what the interviews would cover. In January 2025, the NBA said it had found no violation of league rules and was cooperating with a federal investigation. The day after the indictment was unsealed in October 2025, Adam Silver said during a nationally televised Knicks-Celtics game that Rozier had cooperated, turned over his phone and been interviewed.

That history is now the defense’s main argument. “The NBA is doing the same thing through the Government,” the motion says. “It has lent the prosecution its investigation, summarized the interviews, and agreed to supply a witness. It cannot hand the Government the parts that help and keep the rest.”

Why the league’s file matters

In May, prosecutors added an honest services fraud count that names the NBA and the Hornets as victims, alleging a scheme to deprive them of their “intangible right” to Rozier’s honest services. Rozier’s lawyers, led by David Oscar Markus, use that to argue the league is now his adversary in the case, so its oral summaries of his interviews count as giving up the privilege. “Having described the interviews to him, it cannot withhold the record of them,” they wrote.

They ask the judge to do one of three things: order prosecutors to get the file from the NBA and turn it over, allow a subpoena to the league that must be answered before trial, or keep Rozier’s statements to NBA investigators out of the trial. They also want the judge to block statements that Laster and other bettors made to NBA investigators. Those interviews came months after the game and after the money had been collected, the motion says, so they were not made in furtherance of any conspiracy.

For the league, the request reaches past one player. Its integrity work depends on interviews by outside lawyers that it treats as confidential, and it is running another such investigation now in its probe of the Bucks’ Gary Trent Jr. contract. A ruling that public statements about a probe open up the underlying notes would matter to how the NBA talks about any future case.

SCOOP: Terry Rozier's defense has released a video montage from the March 23, 2023 game (the very game he's accused of manipulating for bettors), showing he grabbed FOUR rebounds, actually beating the 3.5-rebound betting line. “Precisely the opposite of what the alleged… pic.twitter.com/CmEInRCMMq

— Lauren Conlin (@conlin_lauren) November 12, 2026

The rebound video and the rest of the motion

The filing comes with a video exhibit from the 2023 game showing Rozier’s four rebounds, over his 3.5 line. The defense says that is “precisely the opposite” of what the alleged co-conspirators bet on. It also points to a text in which Laster told a witness, “don’t tell chum bout the bet.” Prosecutors now say that text was about casino table games, and they have told the defense they may move to keep it from the jury.

The rest of the motion asks the judge to bar any mention of a group prosecutors have called a “crew” named GMB, and of photos or posts showing guns, drugs or cash. Rozier will agree that he and Laster are friends, his lawyers said, so that evidence would only cause unfair prejudice.

How the case got here

Date	What happened
March 23, 2023	Rozier leaves Hornets-Pelicans after less than 10 minutes; unusual under betting follows
January 2025	NBA says its investigation found no rule violation and it is cooperating with federal authorities
October 2025	Rozier is arrested and indicted; the NBA places him on leave
April 2026	The Heat waive Rozier
May 2026	An arbitrator rules Rozier forfeits his $26.6 million 2025-26 salary; prosecutors add the honest services count naming the NBA as a victim
Nov. 12, 2026	Defense files its motion over the NBA’s report and notes
Feb. 8, 2027	Trial scheduled to begin in Brooklyn

The money in the case has already moved. The players union won an early grievance to have Rozier paid while on leave, but in May an arbitrator ruled that he had violated his contract and would forfeit his 2025-26 salary of $26.6 million, because his bond conditions kept him from playing. The Heat waived him in April, and he remains a free agent.

The wider case has kept moving too. Eric Earnest pleaded guilty in the inside-information case in October 2026, days after the league banned opening-tip bets and single-player under parlays on its games before this season. The judge has not set a date to hear Rozier’s motion.