Heat guard Terry Rozier and Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups have been placed on immediate leave from their respective teams, the NBA announced today in a press release (Twitter link).
“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today,” the league said in a statement. “Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
As we detailed in a pair of stories earlier today, Rozier and Billups were arrested on Thursday morning as part of a pair of separate but related federal investigations into illegal gambling. Former NBA player and coach Damon Jones was also among those arrested.
Law enforcement officials, including U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr., stated during a press conference on Thursday that Rozier and Jones were among six individuals arrested in connection with a scheme to use insider information to make illegal bets on NBA games. Billups and Jones were among 31 individuals arrested in connection with a plot to rig illegal, mafia-run poker games.
A total of 34 arrests were made on Thursday, with three people – including Jones – linked to both investigations. Those arrests are the result of a multi-year, wide-ranging series of probes into illegal gambling. According to Nocella, the NBA has cooperated with the investigations, per Oskar Garcia of The Athletic.
Rozier and Billups are both reportedly being charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering and will appear in federal court on Thursday in Florida and Oregon, respectively.
Here are several more details on the cases, from the Department of Justice’s indictment:
- Rozier is accused of telling co-defendant Deniro Laster that he would remove himself during the first quarter of a game on March 23, 2023, when he was a member of the Hornets, per Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. According to the DOJ, Laster was paid $100K for sharing that information with another defendant, Marves Fairley. The tip was then allegedly shared with others, with a total of $259K in prop bets wagered by the group on Rozier going “under” several statistical benchmarks. The indictment states that winnings were delivered to Rozier’s home, according to Ralph D. Russo of The Athletic.
- According to the indictment, an unnamed co-conspirator told Eric Earnest, another of the defendants, that the Trail Blazers were going into tank mode ahead of a game on March 24, 2023 and that a certain player would sit out, according to Vorkunov. While that player wasn’t specifically identified, Blazers guard Damian Lillard missed that March 24 game due to a calf issue and was shut down a few days later for the rest of the season. To be clear, if Lillard was the player in question, it just means that information about his status was shared, not that he was in any way involved in sharing it.
- Along similar lines, Jones allegedly informed an unnamed co-conspirator prior to the Lakers‘ game vs. Milwaukee on February 9, 2023 that a specific Laker would miss the game and that the co-conspirator should bet on the Bucks. As Mike Prada of The Athletic writes, LeBron James was ruled out for that game (and, eventually, the next two) due to ankle soreness. Jones wasn’t a Lakers employee at the time, but had access to team spaces, including planes and locker rooms, because he worked with James, his former Cavs teammate, says Dan Woike of The Athletic. James wasn’t aware that Jones was sharing information about his playing status, a source tells The Athletic.
- There were also bets illegally placed ahead of a Magic game on April 6, 2023, according to the DOJ (Twitter link via Vorkunov), after one of the defendants who had a relationship with a Magic player learned that Orlando wouldn’t be playing its starters that day.
- As for the allegations against Billups, Nocella described him as one of the celebrity “face cards” that organizers used to attract “fish” (potential victims) to play in rigged poker games. The indictment states that the so-called “face cards” in those games “received a portion of the criminal proceeds in exchange for their participation.” Various technology – including a rigged shuffling machine, X-ray tables, and special eyeglasses – was allegedly used to rig the games.
- According to David Purdum of ESPN, prosecutors claimed that Billups helped organize and played in games in Las Vegas in April 2019 that used a rigged shuffling machine. He was also allegedly wired $50K after participating in a rigged game in October 2020.
I bet every sport team in the country are having meetings with all players and personel telling them no more betting on poker games or sports at all.
Theres an easy solution. We go back to the world of 10 years ago, and eliminate sports betting in widespread situations. LV knows how to run a book, and if you bet with a mob bookie and get scammed thats on you.
Half the country being able to instantly place these bets has made it far to easy and tempting for players to do the wrong thing.
Agreed. Only once the large corporate sportsbooks managed to buy their way into legality in many states did we start seeing more widespread reports of pro and college athletes conspiring with bettors to throw games or purposely underperform.
The problem is, the genie is out of the bottle now. How does each state claw back bans on bookmaking without cases being tied up in the courts for years?
In the past you had to be in Nevada or New Jersey in person. And the casinos were much better at flagging certain things, but also had far less prop bets and parlays on the avg game. Most of the sports books just did win and spread based betting where the whole game had to be rigged to throw the outcome. Now you can just fumble that last rebound to hit the under on the prop bet, so it only takes one player to fix it.
The leagues could refuse to partner with them. If you remove the gambling commission observers from the stadium the legal gambling operations cant take bets. You also dont need to publish lineups and availability specifically how the gambling sites want.
They are currently active participants in facilitating the gambling, and doing endorsements with the gaming companies.
Let’s punish the many for the transgressions of the few.
Wow, if that’s actually the case, Rozier is done. And if they can prove Billups knew about the scam and was compensated for bringing in suckers, same.
Billups thing makes me sad. Not that I like what Rozier did, but Billups knew he was setting people up and knew they were going to lose. People suck.
The victims probably cant sue nearly as easily either, since it was an illegal mob run underground card game.
Isn’t Chauncey Billups in the HOF? I wonder if this is proven to be true, it impacts his HOF status.
Wow.
I just struggle with professional sports embracing gambling. It’s so easy now to do online.
But, the players know the rules. They know “no gambling”. Period. Why take the chance of losing your professional sports salary? Rozier was to make, like, $24M this year?
I mean he gang raped a women early in his playing career and paid her off, but is still working in the league. Not sure this will change things if that didnt…
bUt PiTiNo DoEsNt KnOw WhAt HeS dOiNg
Yes I wonder
Did Billups know he was being asked to be a face card so that people would play a rigged game, or did he only know that he was being asked to play because his presence would attract players? So is the arrest just because he received compensation that was made from fraud? I think, at least semantically, that distinction is important.
That’s my first thought as well. It’s very easy to see him as an “innocent accessory” in this case. Obviously if he did know though, throw the book at him.
I agree, although just receiving payments is likely to be enough. It will be interesting to hear if he was in on the fraud aspect or if he actually thought the games were legit.
Exactly correct. If he received some extra cash “for his efforts,” he’s in.
“Oh wow, I won another hand !!”
Right.
My read of the indictment is the latter — that he (Billups) is alleged to have knowingly participated and received compensation from the proceeds of the fraud.
He got a taste lols
I give Billups credit for being intelligent enough to know.
I thought Rozier was cleared of gambling charges. At least we know this DOJ doesn’t make up charges on people.
The NBA did their own investigation and cleared him.
This is the fed sending Silver a warning. They did a lot of business overseas. They letting them know they know what’s up
He was still a subject of investigation. They just said he wasnt the target. The target was the people making the bets, but if he knowingly passed information he broke both the law and NBA rules.
What’s “knowingly passed information”?….”hey wife, I’m not feeling well today”…wife to sister: Terry’s not feeling well today….wife’s sister to coworker: my sister’s hubby not feeling well today.
Should NBA players have top secret security clearances and be subject to OPSEC violations? Make it make sense
Pretty sure its part of the contract now that you have an NDA on anything related to availability. It all has to go through proper team sources.
Telling someone who you know will leak it to bettors pertinent information, and expecting and receiving a kick back afterwards for doing the deed, is far different than your brother in law placing a bet on inside information they happened to obtain.
Its also basically alleged that he took a dive, and either started the game hurt in order to leave it, or faked an injury in order to defraud.
The NDA is only specific to contract negotiations
But, let’s pretend it’s not. And it’s everything. Explain how you comply to that? If you’re feeling sick in your house, are you supposed to hold your cough in? Drive to an excluded area with no one or cameras around just to sneeze?
Again, make it make sense
He was. This is all show with him. There is nothing new with Rozier.
He was what?
If only they had translators.
Makes you why all this comes out NOW and not in the off season. Weird timing
To maximize exposure.
Yup click bait ….
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
Oh, and also, if there are any new gambling start-ups or apps out there willing to cough up the cash, we’d love to partner with you.
I’m betting (pun intended) that Silver had instructed that law office to take their absolute sweet time, take the whole new season, in digging up dirt on the Kawhi/Clippers/Aspiration brouhaha.
lol
Remind me again, what was Billups’ nickname when he was a player?
Money ?
“Mr Big Shot”
Getting involved with real gangsters is no joke. They will bleed you dry. NBA can not have this connection. Greed gets to most people.
There needs to be harsher penalties for athletes. And people involved in pro sports franchises. So they don’t even think of doing something questionable.
Comical posts in this thread. There is nothing new going on, nor is any of this related to casino sponsorship of the NBA or the proliferation of casinos. Every era has each of these. In fact, today it’s MUCH harder to pull off these kind of scams precisely because of the proliferation of casino’s. Today, everything that happens in or involving a casino in any way is instantaneously monitored, analyzed, cataloged and available forever, including to law enforcement.
Silver may want to close his eyes (their natural position) and just ratify what the Feds do and say. But, here, he needs to be careful with that because the NBA’s interest is not the same as law enforcement’s interest. The greater sports sin here (removing yourself from a game) vs the greater and more obvious societal one (the poker scam) could result in the Feds mostly going after the latter. Whereas, the NBA needs to care mostly about the former. That which affects the integrity of the game matters far more than that which merely speaks to the integrity (or lack of it) by one or more individuals that play or coach the game.
Wow this is such a HUGE surprise, who would have thought a sports betting scandal would involve NBA players and coaches??? Certainly not DraftKings, Bet MGM or Bet Rivers Casino who are such small players in the online betting world. Just wait until the same type of scandal impacts the NFL and upstanding citizen players like Rashee Rice or Dashaun Watson 😎