Come on already.
Forget about the usage in the sentence.
Let's talk about what the sentence was.
He stated ( as fact), that Allen accepted 1 instead of 12, which lead to this speculation.
Since that is total nonsense, nobody ever speculated anything.
It's ridiculous.
No, he stated that people speculated about Ray Allen taking money under the table. Just because the idea of him being paid under the table to play for the Heat is nonsense, doesn't mean "nobody ever speculated anything".
I can't dumb it down any further. Just admit that you overreacted and were wrong and move on with your life.
Or better yet, you can claim that it was "British comprehension" to go along with your "British spelling"!!