The Utah Jazz is not going through its best moment and this is happening at the least opportune moment as it is playing for the season in its NBA Playoffs series against Dallas Mavericks, in which it is down and is about to face the sixth game that could define everything. Not only that, he will have to do it without a member of his team who will no longer be able to be there due to his arrest.
Quin Snyder’s team is looking to win Utah’s first conference title since 1998 when it beat the Los Angeles Lakers in four straight games to retain the label of the best team in the Western Conference. In that year’s Finals, they lost to Michael Jordan‘s legendary Chicago Bulls.
In the first round of the Playoffs of the current NBA season, the Dallas Mavericks overcame a 93-99 loss in the first game and currently have the advantage with 3 games won to only two won by the Utah Jazz, so one more loss would mean elimination for the team born in 1974.
The Utah Jazz member who was arrested
In October 2021, news broke of a fraud case in which 18 former NBA players illegally made millions of dollars at the expense of the league’s health and welfare benefit plan. One more name has just been added to this list,Keyon Dooling who served as assistant coach of the Utah Jazz since 2020.
Keyon Dooling, 41, was the first vice president of the National Basketball Players Association and served as a union officer for 8 years. During his time as an NBA player, he played for 7 teams, including the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics.
Thus, after informing the Utah Jazz board of directors on the morning of April 27 of his legal situation, the team decided to place him on paid administrative leave as announced through an official statement, in which they reiterated that the accusations against Dooling are for activities he carried out prior to joining the team.
Keyon Dooling is formally charged with being an alleged recruiter of members to join a group of fraudsters who were scammed out of millions of dollars at the expense of the NBA’s health care and wellfare benefit program.
The original list of 18 former players charged includes Terrence Williams, Alan Anderson, Anthony Allen, Desiree Allen, Shannon Brown, William Bynum, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Melvin Ely, Darius Miles, Milton Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Charles Watson Jr, Antoine Wright and Anthony Wroten.
Keyon Dooling (John McCoy/Getty Images)
