NBA commissioner's comments on the Raptors Center investigation

Jontay Porter faces a possible lifetime ban from the NBA.

The league has confirmed its investigation into the Toronto Raptors center following a series of unusual gambling activities involving Porter, first reported by ESPN. On January 26 and March 20, unusually large amounts of money were bet on Porter to underperform his expected stats. In both cases, Porter abandoned the game early, allowing those who placed the Unders bets to win.

Porter has been away from the Raptors since March 23 for “personal reasons.”

The unusual activity suggests that Porter may have been involved in the fraudulent activity affecting betting lines. NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly called the allegations a “cardinal sin” and suggested that Porter could be permanently suspended if there was evidence linking Porter to the activity, ESPN's Tim Bontemps reported.

“In my opinion there is nothing more serious in this league when it comes to gambling and betting on our games and that is direct player involvement. “So the investigation is ongoing, but the consequences could be very serious,” Silver told reporters on Wednesday.

Porter had been Toronto's third reserve player earlier in the year, and it was extremely strange that so much money was being put into such a relatively unknown player.

“People have been trying to do what they can to bet on Jontay Porter [against the Clippers]” a source told ESPN. “And then a few days ago, the same thing. We had a lot of people trying to bet more.

Porter left the Toronto game on Jan. 26 with what was reported to be a re-aggravated eye injury. He suffered the injury in Toronto's previous game, but the injury was not disclosed on the January 26 injury report.

In March, Porter left early due to an illness during Toronto's game against the Sacramento Kings. Again, the illness was not mentioned in Toronto's pregame injury report.