The NBA world woke to explosive news that the FBI had secured more than 30 indictments tied to alleged illegal gambling scandals, linking three current and former prominent NBA figures.
Current Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, current Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones were each arrested Thursday, Oct. 23 for their alleged involvement in the operation, though they are facing different charges.
FBI director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr. announced the indictments Thursday in a press conference.
The case creates a massive ripple effect across the league, not only for Billups and Rozier, but for the NBA’s public perception.
Here’s everything you need to know about the explosive details of the alleged NBA gambling scandals.
NBA fraud scheme: What does this mean for the NBA?
The NBA said Thursday in a statement that both Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier have been placed on “immediate leave” as the league is “in the process of reviewing” the indictments.
This allows the league some flexibility in removing Billups and Rozier from public view while the legal process plays out and while the league determines what steps to take. The NBA said it would “continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities.”
The league doesn’t have many options aside from that.
The NBA had initially cleared Rozier following an investigation, but the league lacks subpoena power afforded to law enforcement.
On Thursday, January 30, news of an investigation into Rozier in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York came to light. At that point, the NBA said it would cooperate with that investigation, which ultimately resulted in the arrest of Rozier Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department said Billups, Rozier and Jones are each expected to make a court appearance later Thursday.
What does this mean for Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier?
Although the legal process — which may take months, if not longer — will need to play out, involvement in an alleged illegal gambling operation such as this could effectively end the careers of both Billups and Rozier.
Even if both are eventually cleared in the matter, teams may opt to keep their distance from figures who were allegedly connected to a high-profile gambling operation.
But if either or both are found to have committed impropriety, they would be subject to league discipline in addition to any sentencing resulting from the legal process.
Billups, 49, has been the Trail Blazers coach since 2021 and has compiled a 117-212 (.356) record in that span. He was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024 after a 17-year playing career.
Although Portland has not been competitive during Billups’ tenure, he did draw moderate improvements out of its young roster toward the end of last season. The Trail Blazers, though still likely some time away from competing in the stacked Western Conference, had the potential to build on that momentum in 2025-26.
The Trail Blazers lost their season opener Wednesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The team named Tiago Splitter as the interim coach.
Billups had signed a multiyear contract extension with the Trail Blazers, general manager Joe Cronin announced Sunday, April 13, though terms were not disclosed.
Rozier, 31, is currently on the Heat, though he has struggled and has played himself out of the rotation in Miami. In Wednesday night’s season-opening loss against the Magic, Rozier was a healthy scratch.
In 64 games last season, Rozier averaged 10.6 points per game, representing his lowest total since the 2018-19 season. He’s in the final season of his contract with Miami, which had been reportedly looked to offload him in a trade.
What are the charges Chauncey Billups is facing?
Though the indictment filed in the Eastern District of New York does not specify individual counts for the alleged participants, Billups was charged in connection with an illegal poker operation tied to the mafia.
According to Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, charges in this scheme include wire fraud conspiracy, illegal gambling, money laundering, robbery, and extortion.
Beginning as early as 2019, defendants allegedly used wireless cheating technology to run rigged poker games in places including the Hamptons, Miami, Las Vegas and Manhattan.
Billups, who was not the coach of the Trail Blazers at the time of his alleged involvement but merely a former NBA player, was one of the draws that helped lure victims to the illegal poker games. Essentially, the victims were allegedly duped by the allure of playing poker alongside former pro athletes like Billups and Jones.
Yet, according to the indictment, the dealer at the games, the high-profile players and other figures were in on a scam that allegedly tipped information to all players except the victims.
“Once the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims out of tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars per game,” Nocella said.
The alleged fraud included self-shuffling machines that had “been secretly altered in order to read the cards on the deck, predict which player on the table had the best poker hand, and relay the information to an offsite operator,” according to Nocella.
“The offsite operator sent the information via cell phone back to a co-conspirator at the table and that person at the table was known as the ‘quarterback.’ The ‘quarterback’ then signaled secretly the information he had received to others at the table and together they used that information in order to win their games and to cheat the victims.”
Poker chip tray analyzers, special contact lenses or eyeglasses that read pre-marked cards, and an X-ray table that reads cards face down were also allegedly used in the scheme.
Members of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese organized crime families also allegedly became involved, taking a cut of the rigged poker games and enforcing the collection of debts.
Former Cavaliers player and coach Damon Jones, who is also implicated in the alleged insider sports-betting scandal, was also indicted in the illegal poker operation.
What are the charges Terry Rozier is facing?
In a separate indictment, Terry Rozier is one of six defendants charged in an alleged insider sports-betting conspiracy. Damon Jones is also implicated in the alleged scheme. The charges listed in the indictment are conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the indictment, Rozier, Jones and others allegedly committed fraud by betting based on insider information about NBA athletes and teams from around December 2022 to March 2024.
The non-public information included when players would be sitting out future games or when they would pull themselves out early based on purported injuries or illnesses.
Rozier is accused of manipulating his performance during an NBA game to benefit illegal betting. The game took place on Thursday, March 23, 2023, when Rozier was a member of the Charlotte Hornets.
He had averaged 35.3 minutes and 21.1 points per game that season, and entered the night with no injury designation.
He started the game, but played only 9:34 minutes before he left the game with a supposed foot injury. He did not return and would subsequently miss the remaining eight games of the season.
That night, Rozier took just four shot attempts, making two of them, and scored five points, while adding four rebounds and two assists.
According to the indictment, Rozier informed his childhood friend, De’Niro Laster, that he “was going to prematurely remove himself from the game in the first quarter due to a supposed injury and not return to play further.”
Per the indictment, Laster then allegedly sold the information about Rozier’s participation to multiple co-conspirators so that they could place fraudulent wagers.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. called the alleged setup, “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
What are the charges Damon Jones is facing?
Former Cavaliers player and coach Damon Jones is allegedly implicated in both schemes.
In the insider sports-betting conspiracy, Jones allegedly provided non-public injury information about the status of two players in NBA games, per the federal indictments.
Based on public injury information USA TODAY Sports reviewed from the dates of those games, those players may have been LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Jones allegedly used his access with the Lakers and their top players to help orchestrate the operation, with the focus being a Feb. 9, 2023 game between the Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks. According to the indictment, Jones allegedly texted gamblers that “Player 3” would not be playing in that game.
Player 3 is identified in the indictment as “a prominent NBA player” with whom Jones had been teammates and coached. Jones played with James for the Cleveland Cavaliers over three seasons and served as an unofficial Lakers coach during the 2022-23 season, according to the indictment.
At the time of the text message, “Player 3” had not been ruled out of that game against the Bucks.
Jones is also alleged to have tipped off gamblers about the participation of “Player 4” ahead of a Jan. 15, 2024 game involving the Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Jones claimed to have learned from a team trainer that “Player 4” was injured and going to play limited minutes during that game.
Identified in the indictment as “one of the Lakers’ best players” during the 2023-24 season, “Player 4” was listed as probable on the team’s injury report. Davis was the only Laker listed as probable on that game’s injury report.
Jones allegedly sold that information for fraudulent gambling purposes, though Davis played and finished the game with 27 points and 15 rebounds.
