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👟 Westbrook's Future with Lakers in Question

👟 Westbrook's Future with Lakers in Question

Chris Lesiak
August 29, 2022

Former NBA player Terrence Williams pleads guilty in NBA health care fraud, Boston Celtics forward Danilo Gallinari diagnosed with torn meniscus, and Russell Westbrook's future with the Lakers remains in question.

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TERRENCE WILLIAMS

Former NBA Player Terrence Williams Pleads Guilty in NBA Health Care Fraud

Terrence Williams is the accused leader and has pleaded guilty in a scheme to commit health care fraud and identity theft in connection with the NBA league’s health plan. Along with Williams there are at least 17 other former NBA players involved with this scheme.

Williams played for the New Jersey Nets and three other teams over the span of 4 years in the NBA. Williams is currently 35 years old and entered his plea in federal court in Manhattan on Friday. He now faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge as well as a mandatory minimum two years in prison for identity theft. Williams is scheduled to receive his sentence in January of next year.

He and the 17 other former NBA players were charged for the indictment back in October 2021. Authorities have claimed that over $5 million in false claims had been submitted to the plan within the last 5 years. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said that Terrence ran the scheme and recruited other players to be a part of it by giving them fake paperwork to submit to the plan. As part of the plea, Terrence Williams will pay $2.5 million in restitution to the plan and will have to forfeit $650,000+ to the federal government.

DANILO GALLINARI

Boston Celtics Forward Danilo Gallinari Diagnosed with Torn Meniscus

Boston Celtics forward Danilo Gallinari suffered a torn meniscus while playing for Italy in the FIBA World Cup qualifying game this past Saturday. Team Italy has not disclosed a timetable for Gallinari’s recovery but he is set to miss next month’s EuroBasket tournament.

Gallinari suffered the injury on a bounce pass while playing against Georgia. Italy captain, Luigi Datome said after the team’s win, “It’s tough to talk about basketball after what we saw happen in Danilo. We wish him, of course, the best.”

Gallinari, who is 34 years old, signed with the Celtics this past July. He is counted on to add depth to a hungry Boston team that looks to return to the NBA Finals this upcoming season. Gallinari has averaged 15.6 PPG throughout his career and is a key addition to that young Celtics roster.

RUSSELL WESTBROOK

Russell Westbrook's Future with Lakers Remains in Question

With Kyrie Irving trade talks coming to a halt for now, the drama amongst the Los Angeles Lakers has not slowed down by any means. On Thursday the Lakers acquired veteran guard, Patrick Beverley from the Utah Jazz for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson. This is now leading to more speculation revolving around Russell Westbrook’s future status with the team.

The Lakers have been actively looking for trades involving Westbrook for quite some time with reports of potential deals not going through because of the Lakers unwillingness to include their future first-round draft picks. The Lakers new head coach, Darvin Ham, has discussed a new potential offensive game plan for the Lakers to get Westbrook more corner threes. Although with the addition of Beverley, Westbrook’s future with the Lakers remains in question.

According to Jovan Buha from The Athletic, Westbrook could simply be sent away from the team. Other sources like Marc Stein, have suggested that the Lakers are not inclined to go that route and instead are “determined” to figure out a way to use Westbrook. Obviously the Lakers would be more inclined to a potential Myles Turner and Buddy Hield trade rather than paying Westbrook $47 million to sit at home away from the team. With LeBron signing an extension and the addition of Beverley, the Lakers have a big decision to make ahead of training camp.