NBA Players Who Got Caught Cheating on Live TV 😳

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
The next possession that he's going right, you just witnessed an NBA player cheat. Congrats, you're not the only one. Today, we're going to cover times NBA players were caught cheating. But first, we got to talk about the time a former NBA superstar got caught using glue on the court. It's March 19th, 2016 The Rockets are hosting the Hawks, and Dwight Howard is checking in. Only this time, something's different. Paul Milstap grabs the ball during a free throw, and immediately something feels off. He throws it back to the ref, complaining there was something on it. And he was right. Referee Monty McCutcheon inspects the ball, rubs it between his hands, and immediately calls for a replacement. The ball had been coated in Stickum, a sticky adhesive that's been banned in the NBA for decades. The culprit? Dwight Howard. He admitted after the game he had been using the secret sticky stuff for years, and it was only then that he had been caught glue-handed. But probably the most surprising thing was how lenient the league was, because they let him off with just a warning. Yeah, Dwight got lucky, but LeBron, he wasn't so lucky. All it took was one joke at his expense, and suddenly the internet had him on trial for something way bigger. See, when you're LeBron James, the face of the league for 20 years, the guy who spends millions on his body every season, still dominating into his 40s, people are gonna be looking for explanations. And in 2024, one rumor set the internet on fire. It all started with Jeff T on his club 520 podcast. T casually dropped the bomb. He claimed that back when LeBron was with the Miami Heat, the game wasn't just working out, he was on steroids. Which Bron was better.

**Michael Porter Jr.** (1:29)
The Miami Heat Bron.

**Magic Johnson** (1:30)
He was on steroids, bro.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:31)
He had to sit out, he was on steroids for real. The clip went viral instantly. Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, everyone was running with the idea that LeBron had just been exposed. Fans pulled up old injuries, timelines, even grainy clips of LeBron looking slimmer. But when you really start digging, there is something there. Like in 2015, during his first year back in Cleveland, when LeBron missed about two weeks with what was officially called a back injury. He came back lighter and ESPN's Brian Winnhorst later admitted he wasn't quite himself for the rest of the season. Or the reports in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron's weight mysteriously fluctuated by seven pounds in a single game. An almost impossible swing for any athlete, but maybe not impossible for someone who had ties with people later linked with Biogenesis, the same clinic that supplied PEDs to MLB Star. Add in some wild claims from guys like Chael Sonnen.

**Chael Sonnen** (2:20)
If the world understood what LeBron did, like other basketball players will hear what LeBron does and go, well, yeah, but that doesn't matter. It's like, no, no, no. If you knew what these performance answers did, then you would know why it does matter.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:31)
Yeah, the conspiracy theorists were having a field day, but here's the kicker. Most of what Teague said just didn't add up. The timeline was all wrong. I mean, LeBron never missed three straight weeks in Miami. His longest absence was back in Cleveland, and the NBA didn't even start testing for HGH until like the 2015-16 season, after the injury Teague was describing. So then the tide turned back on Teague, and LeBron claimed it was all a big joke. But look, Teague may have been joking, or he may have actually known something. Either way, the facts are that LeBron never failed a drug test. But all I can take is one rumor. But when it came to this next incident, the evidence was all there, because it was the scandal that nearly broke the NBA itself. This is John Tay Porter. You probably know his brother, Michael Porter Jr., who's a starter for the Brooklyn Nets. John Tay, he was the younger brother who bounced around the league, grinding for minutes as a two-way player with the Toronto Raptors. On paper, he was just a role guy trying to make it. But in March of 2024, everything changed. The NBA announced it was investigating Porter after sportsbooks flagged irregular betting patterns in Raptors games. And those bets weren't just random. They lined up perfectly with John Tay's on-court props. The most suspicious moment was a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. John Tay checked out just minutes into the first quarter, claiming he fell ill. His stat line, zero, zero, zero. Now the sportsbooks had seen massive action on the under for all his player props that night. And guess what? Every single one hit. Turns out the same thing happened a month previously when John Tay checked out with an eye injury. Sketchy as hell. But when the league dug deeper, the picture got way worse. According to reports, John Tay wasn't just faking injuries. He was allegedly feeding inside information to gamblers and even placing bets himself through third parties. The NBA's worst nightmare had become reality. An active player accused of manipulating games for money. Michael Porter came to his little bro's defense.