An arbitrator has ruled that Terry Rozier must forfeit the majority of his $26.6 million NBA salary for the 2025-26 season due to a violation of his Heat contract.
Rozier was arrested by the FBI last October for alleged involvement in an illegal gambling scheme and has since pleaded not guilty. In late May, the arbitrator decided that Rozier breached his contract obligations because the conditions of his pretrial release in his criminal case left him in violation of the contract.
Rozier’s release conditions banned him from contacting anyone with the Heat and Hornets, and imposed travel restrictions.
Initially, the arbitrator ruled the Heat must pay Rozier his full salary since it ruled that he couldn’t be put back on unpaid leave by the NBA, which he was placed on when indicted by New York’s Eastern District.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, then stated that the team decided not to make payments to Rozier “almost immediately,” forcing a second round of arbitration in early April, per the court filing.
In his most recent court filing on Wednesday, Trusty asked that Rozier’s release conditions remove the Hornets from the no-contact list, as they removed Heat personnel from the no-contact list after his release from the team. Trusty argued that changing the condition could affect his ability to play in the NBA as the free agency negotiation period begins this month.
“Under the current ruling of the arbitrator, an inability to play for or against the Charlotte Hornets would constitute a ‘failure to perform services’ by Mr. Rozier and substantially diminish or eliminate any chance of being contracted by an NBA team,” Trusty wrote in the document.
Rozier is scheduled to be arraigned next week on new charges, including sports bribery and honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and will plead not guilty, per Trusty.
Rozier pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in October, when he also pleaded not guilty.
