The NBA reminded its teams on Friday that it wants to control which types of bets are offered on its games, an indicator that it will continue negotiating with sportsbooks and regulatory agencies to make that happen.
The moves come about two months after the arrests of Miami guard Terry Rozier and Portland coach Chauncey Billups on separate gambling-related charges, and the league acknowledged that what was announced Friday was to “further promote understanding of and adherence to the league’s betting rules."
In a memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the league detailed a list of changes — some minor, some not-so-minor — that it will implement as part of its policies regarding injury reporting, the issue of “tanking," safety measures for players and coaches, and more.
Among the changes:
— Except on the second day of back-to-back games, teams will be required to resubmit injury reports on game days. For games that tip off at 5 p.m. or earlier, the additional report would come between 8-10 a.m.; otherwise, the additional report would come between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The league said the move would “further promote transparency regarding players’ game participation status, and thereby diminish the value of confidential information that could be ‘tipped’ " to bettors or others.
Rozier is accused of disclosing to friends that he would be leaving a game early when he was with the Charlotte Hornets in March 2023, prompting bettors to make successful “under” wagers on his prop bet values for that night.
— The league said more “training touchpoints” would be made throughout the season to educate all league and team personnel on betting rules. The NBA also plans to have new “compliance measures (for) individuals who are not employed by a team and may have access to confidential team information.”
— The league will update its Fan Code of Conduct “to better protect NBA players, coaches, and other team personnel from harassment or threats by sports bettors.” Players and coaches have long said that fans, courtside and otherwise, often voice displeasure when they make unsuccessful wagers. The league said it'll make more moves to protect its coaches and players, including advocating for “stronger anti-harassment protections in federal or state laws and regulations.”
— Tanking remains a major concern, and the NBA is again reviewing potential policy changes. None were announced Friday.
— The league will do more, it said, to better utilize artificial intelligence and other tools to protect the game from unusual betting activity. It also will continue pushing for changes on the so-called “prop bets,” which the NBA hopes will reduce the risk of having player performances manipulated.
Also Friday, the NBA said Eric Lewis has been reinstated to the league’s officiating program as an NBA G League official. He will begin officiating games at this weekend at the G League Winter Showcase in Orlando, with a potential path toward returning to the NBA.
Lewis retired in August 2023 when he was under investigation by the NBA for potential violations of its social media policy. The sides have worked toward a potential return for some time, and the NBA said Lewis “fully participated in an investigation into his social media activities during his time as an NBA official.”
“In order to be eligible to rejoin the program, Lewis cleared several benchmarks, including stress management counseling and training on responsible use of social media,” the league said.
Lewis has worked as an NCAA referee for the last two seasons.
“Over nearly 20 years, Eric established himself as one of the NBA’s premier game officials,” said Byron Spruell, the NBA's President overseeing League Operations. “While he made a mistake in engaging on social media, our investigation concluded that his behavior did not impact his ability to officiate games fairly and with integrity. We are confident he has learned from that experience and can properly serve the game again, first as an NBA G League official and potentially in a return as an NBA official.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, right, dunks the ball past New York Knicks guard Tyler Kolek in the second half of an NBA Cup championship basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Kirby Lee/Pool Photo via AP)
Indiana Pacers forward Isaiah Jackson (22) dunks in front of New York Knicks forward Pacome Dadiet (4) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa in southern Ukraine killed eight people and wounded 27, Ukraine’s emergency service said Saturday, as a a Kremlin envoy was set to travel to Florida for talks on a U.S.-proposed plan to end the nearly four-year war,
The discussions are part of the Trump administration's monthslong push for peace that also included meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week. Ukraine's chief negotiator said late Friday that his delegation had completed separate meetings in the U.S. with American and European partners.
Meanwhile, European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide a massive interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.
Some of those wounded in Odesa were on a bus at the center of the strike late Friday, the emergency service said in a Telegram post. Trucks caught fire in the parking lot and cars were also damaged.
The port was struck with ballistic missiles, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa region.
Moscow did not immediately acknowledge reports of the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that over the previous day, it had struck unspecified “transport and storage infrastructure used by the Ukrainian armed forces,” along with energy facilities and those supplying Kyiv's war effort.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil rig, the military patrol ship Okhotnik and other facilities, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Saturday. It said the ship was patrolling in the Caspian Sea near an oil and gas production platform. The extent of the damage was still being clarified, it said.
The drilling platform at the Filanovsky oil and gas field as also hit. The facility is operated by Russian oil giant Lukoil. Ukrainian drones also struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian government or Lukoil. The company is one of two Russian oil majors — alongside state-owned Gazprom — targeted by recent U.S. sanctions that aim to deprive Moscow of oil export revenue that helps it sustain the war.
Kyiv has used similar arguments to justify months of long-range strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, which it says both funds and directly fuels the Kremlin's all-out invasion, soon to enter its fifth year.
U.S. President Donald Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently signaled he is digging in on his maximalist demands on Ukraine, as Moscow's troops inch forward on the battlefield despite huge losses.
On Friday, Putin voiced confidence that the Kremlin would achieve its goals militarily if Kyiv doesn’t agree to Russia’s conditions in peace talks.
EU leaders agreed to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, although they failed to bridge differences with Belgium that would have allowed them to use frozen Russian assets to raise the funds. Instead, they were borrowed on capital markets.
After almost four years of war, the International Monetary Fund estimates that Ukraine will need 137 billion euros ($161 billion) in 2026 and 2027. The government in Kyiv is on the verge of bankruptcy, and desperately needs the money by spring.
Meanwhile, Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, is set to meet with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on Saturday, according to a U.S. official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to preview a meeting that hasn’t yet been publicly announced.
The official said Witkoff and Kushner will sit down with Dmitriev, after meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin for talks on U.S. security guarantees for Kyiv, territorial concessions and other aspects of the American-authored plan.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said late Friday that a Ukrainian delegation had met with American and European partners in the U.S. He gave few details, but said they agreed to continue “joint work in the near future.”
Asked about the meeting in Miami, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Moscow was preparing for contacts with the U.S. to learn about the results of the meetings in Berlin, but he didn’t give details.
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A rescue worker walks in front of a residential house damaged after a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
