2022–23 Chinese Basketball Association season

The 2022–23 CBA season was the 28th season of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). The season began on 21 October 2022 and ended on 5 April 2023.^[1]

The league consisted of 20 teams. The Liaoning Flying Leopards won their third championship in team history following their finals victory over the Zhejiang Golden Bulls.

On 17 April 2023, during the playoffs, the CBA ruled that the Jiangsu Dragons and Shanghai Sharks engaged in unsportsmanlike conduct following point shaving incidents, and were suspended for the next season. Coaches and players were given multiyear suspensions as well.^[2][3]

On 15 January 2026, the United States Department of Justice Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the indictment of Dragons player Antonio Blakeney as one of 26 parties involved in the match-fixing and point shaving scheme, which started in October 2022 in the CBA and eventually advanced into the United States National Collegiate Athletic Association for two subsequent season (2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons). Two of the 26 parties involved, Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen, were previously indicted three months prior on 23 October 2025 in the Eastern District of New York for their role in the 2023 NBA gambling scheme that involved Terry Rozier, Damon Jones, and Chauncey Billups, all of whom were indicted in that scheme.^[4] Fairley and Hennen recruited Blakeney for the entirety of the CBA/NCAA gambling ring, and Blakeney recruited numerous CBA players for the corrupted matches. The Department of Justice report cited gambler Jalen Smith, also part of the ring, for making bets of 198,300 USD for the Guandong Southern Tigers to cover an 11.5 point spread against Jiangsu at Rivers Casino Philadelphia (which Guandong won by 31 points), and a 15 March 2023 game against Zhejiang, where bets of over 100,000 USD, including a specific 50,000 USD wager, was placed at the same casino for Zhejiang (favoured by approximately 15 points in various casinos) against Jiangsu, which Zhejiang won by 41 points. The games had been rigged in accordance with the match fixers. At the conclusion of the CBA season, Fairley sent Blakeney a payment of 200,000 USD for participating in the scheme.^[5] The charges violated Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 264, the Sports Bribery Act of 1964, with original jurisdiction assigned to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since the illegal betting scheme took place in Philadelphia.^[6]

On 9 March 2026, Jalen Smith plead guilty to the charges he was involved with match fixing and point shaving with the CBA games in response to this charge.^[7] He faces up to 45 years in prison for the three charges involving match fixing, and also 15 additional years for possessing a loaded Khar Arms CT380 semi-automatic pistol as a felon (convicted of two counts of possession to distribute in 2018) when he was charged on 6 March 2026 (which he also plead guilty.

Smith also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm as a felon. He was charged after a May 21, 2025 search of his home found him to be in unlawful possession of a loaded Khar Arms CT380 semi-automatic pistol. Smith was convicted on two counts of possession with intent to distribute in 2018. The firearms charge carries a maximum possible sentence of 15 years of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.