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Prop bets like the one he placed are generally common in modern sports betting, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see high-dollar bets on whether LeBron James will have a triple-double in the playoffs or whether Steph Curry will make a certain number of three-pointers in the All-Star Game. But it is hard to imagine a more suspicious bet than wagering $80,000 on the playing time of one of the league’s least-known players, especially one with a well-publicized history of debilitating injuries, on a random March game. A little more circumspection might have allowed him to fly under the radar.

In an even more damning detail, Porter also placed some bets himself through an associate’s betting account, including multi-leg parlays where he bet on the Raptors to lose. That may well have been the fatal blow in the NBA’s eyes. On the spectrum of gambling-related offenses by athletes, there is no greater one than betting against one’s own team. It is corrupt and dishonorable. It is tantamount to defrauding the fans who pay to watch the games; it is a fundamental betrayal of the imagined community of which every sports team’s supporters are part. It is unforgivable.

For that reason, gambling scandals are a serious threat to any professional sports league. In baseball’s early days, betting on the outcomes of games was commonplace among fans and even some players. While this usually took the form of betting on oneself to win, it also took more insidious forms. Allegations of bribery and match fixing in games culminated in the 1919 White Sox scandal, where the team allegedly threw the World Series. Professional baseball restructured itself after the scandal and installed a federal judge as its first commissioner to restore public confidence.