Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier have been arrested by the FBI on Thursday as a part of two separate illegal gambling-related instances, the FBI confirmed.
Billups, Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers participant and assistant coach Damon Jones have been among over 30 individuals arrested in reference to the FBI’s probe. Four different individuals, Eric Earnest, Marves Fairley, Shane Hennen and Deniro Laster have been named in the Department of Justice’s indictment.
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The investigation took years and spanned 11 states, FBI director Kash Patel mentioned Thursday.
Billups and Jones have been charged after allegedly being concerned with an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia. Billups’ involvement is reportedly not associated to video games he coached.
The individuals allegedly concerned in operating the illegal poker video games — a few of which embody members of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime households — are accused of rigging contests of their favor. Individuals reportedly used secret cameras, contacts that would learn marked playing cards and X-ray tables, among different strategies, to cheat different gamers out of thousands and thousands.
Billups’ presence at these video games was meant to legitimize them and make “victims believe that they were sitting at a fair table,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned Thursday. Billups was reportedly conscious of the rip-off, per US Attorney Joe Nocella.
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Billups, 49, spent 17 seasons within the NBA as a participant. Billups, the No. 3 general choose within the 1997 NBA Draft, spent eight of these seasons with the Detroit Pistons, the place he helped lead the group to a championship in 2004. Billups was a five-time All-Star, made the All-NBA group 3 times and was a member of the NBA All-Defensive group twice. Billups was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
Following the tip of his enjoying profession, Billups went into teaching. He was employed by the Trail Blazers forward of the 2021-22 NBA season and has compiled a 177-212 document in 5 seasons with the group.
One of these defeats got here Wednesday night time, as Billups led the Trail Blazers to a 118-114 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves within the group’s 2025-26 season opener.
Jones was additionally reportedly concerned within the illegal poker sport scheme. Jones, an 11-year NBA veteran, performed for 10 groups throughout his profession. After retiring in 2012, Jones frolicked as an assistant coach with the Cavaliers.
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Terry Rozier among these arrested in sports-betting probe
Rozier, 31, had been under investigation for his actions throughout a 2022-23 NBA sport, when he was nonetheless a member of the Charlotte Hornets. Prior to a sport towards the New Orleans Pelicans that season, a bettor positioned almost $14,000 on unders involving Rozier’s statistics. Rozier left the sport after simply 9 minutes because of a foot harm, inflicting his underneath bets to win, per paperwork acquired by ESPN.
The investigation into Rozier reportedly centered on whether or not he “manipulated his performance as a part of an illegal sports activities betting scheme,” the Wall Street Journal wrote in January.
Despite the investigation, Rozier, an 11-year NBA veteran, was getting ready to play for the Heat throughout the 2025-26 NBA season. The guard battled a hamstring harm forward of the group’s season opener Wednesday, however was reportedly out there to play within the contest.
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He didn’t make an look in the team’s 125-121 loss to the Orlando Magic.
In September, the Hornets canceled a sports betting theme night promotion that was presupposed to happen when Rozier and the Heat got here to city in March.
Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, launched a press release to NCS saying his consumer “looks forward to winning this fight.”
Trusty additionally criticized the way in which the FBI handled Thursday’s arrest.
“It is unfortunate that instead of allowing [Rozier] to self surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case. They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing,” Trusty’s assertion continued.
Jones — along with reportedly being concerned within the illegal poker video games — was additionally accused of offering inside details about NBA video games to co-defendants who used that info to put sports activities bets, per ABC News.
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The probe into Rozier was the identical one one which resulted in Toronto Raptors ahead Jontay Porter being banned from the NBA for life, prosecutors mentioned Thursday. Porter was investigated after uncommon betting exercise got here in on his unders for two games. Porter left a kind of contests with an harm and one other with an sickness, inflicting a lot of these unders to hit.
An NBA investigation decided Porter leaked “confidential information to sports bettors,” restricted his enjoying time in sure video games for betting functions and guess on NBA video games, resulting in his lifetime ban.
Former Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley, who was underneath investigation because of his alleged involvement in a federal gambling probe, was not a part of the arrests. While the investigation into Beasley was not closed, the NBA investigation into Beasley allegedly “didn’t find anything,” per journalist Pablo Torre. Beasley reportedly voluntarily handed over his telephone to NBA investigators, per Torre.
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The FBI and Patel held a press convention Thursday to confirm those arrests and supply extra particulars on the allegations surrounding Billups, Jones and Rozier.
The Trail Blazers, Heat and NBA have but to touch upon Thursday’s arrests.
This story can be up to date.