Arbitrator Rules Against Terry Rozier in Heat Salary Dispute
MIAMI – Terry Rozier must forfeit most of his $26.6 million NBA salary for the 2025-26 season after an arbitrator found he violated his Miami Heat contract.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The ruling stems from release conditions imposed after Rozier was arrested by the FBI last October in connection with an alleged illegal gambling scheme. He has pleaded not guilty.
The case has since expanded, with prosecutors recently filing new bribery charges against Rozier linked to an alleged sports betting scheme.
Arbitrator Cites Release Conditions
In late May, the arbitrator found that Rozier had breached his contract because the terms of his pretrial release prevented him from meeting key obligations under the agreement. Those conditions barred Rozier from contacting anyone connected to the Heat or the Charlotte Hornets, according to court filings. They also imposed travel restrictions.
The Hornets are relevant because Rozier played for Charlotte during the game at the centre of the federal gambling case. He was later traded to the Heat in January 2024 and waived by Miami in April.
The arbitration dispute developed in stages. An earlier ruling found that the Heat were required to pay Rozier his full salary because he could not be placed back on unpaid leave by the NBA after being indicted in the Eastern District of New York.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, later said the Heat stopped making payments “almost immediately”, leading to a second round of arbitration in early April. The latest ruling means Rozier must forfeit the majority of his 2025-26 salary.
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Defence Seeks Change to Release Conditions
In a court filing on Wednesday, Trusty asked that the Hornets be removed from Rozier’s no-contact list. Heat personnel were previously removed from the restriction after Rozier was released by the team.
Trusty argued that keeping the Hornets on the no-contact list could affect Rozier’s ability to play in the NBA, especially 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.
Rozier is scheduled to be arraigned next week on new charges, including sports bribery and honest services wire fraud conspiracy. Trusty said Rozier will plead not guilty.
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