Adam Silver open to 'unique solutions' as Heat look to resolve Terry Rozier situation
NBA commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged the unprecedented connection between the Miami Heat and Terry Rozier and publicly expressed the league's willingness to work together on a possible resolution, even as the investigation surrounding Rozier remains ongoing.
Silver spoke about the incident in Las Vegas before the NBA Cup, noting the complexity of the matter and his sympathy for the team.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” Silver said Tuesday. “I think I have a lot of sympathy for the Heat and their fans. But I think we're going to try to work through some of the issues and work through this with them. But there's no obvious solution here. I'd just say, there's no question at this point that they have a player that's not going to serve them. As for the pick that they've conveyed — obviously he hasn't been convicted yet, but it's an unfortunate situation. But sometimes there are unique circumstances and events, and maybe sometimes they require unique solutions.”
Rozier remains on unpaid leave after federal prosecutors accused him of tipping off a friend about his early departure so that bets could be placed based on his statistics.
Those alleged incidents occurred in March 2023 during his time in Charlotte, but the fallout fell squarely on Miami, which gave up a valuable future draft pick and now carries a $26.6 million salary cap hit for a player who can't play.
Silver made it clear that the Heat must get league approval to trade Rozier and acknowledged that it would be difficult to identify a trade partner under the current circumstances.
“We will look at this issue with the Heat and the rest of the league to see if there are any satisfactory mitigations, but at the moment there are not,” he said.
The commissioner also confirmed that investigators are monitoring developments related to federal indictments involving Rozier, Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones, while noting the limitations of the NBA's initial investigation.
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