1:52 pm: The Trail Blazers have confirmed that Splitter will be their interim head coach, issuing the following statement:
“We are aware of the allegations involving head coach Chauncey Billups, and the Trail Blazers are fully cooperating with the investigation. Billups has been placed on immediate leave, and Tiago Splitter will assume head coaching duties in the interim. Any further questions should be directed to the NBA.”
12:06 pm: First-year Trail Blazers assistant Tiago Splitter will assume head coaching duties in Portland on an interim basis following Chauncey Billups‘ arrest on Thursday, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Billups is reportedly being charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering after being accused of participating in an illegal, mafia-run operation to rig illegal poker games.
Billups was described by law enforcement officials as one of the celebrity “face cards” that organizers used to attract “fish” (potential victims) to the games. He was placed on immediate leave by the NBA on Thursday.
Assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren, formerly the head coach of the Pacers, looked like the top candidate to take over as Portland’s acting head coach, as he did last season when Billups briefly left the team for family reasons. However, according to Charania, while Bjorkgren received strong consideration for the position, he decided it was best for him to remain in his current role.
Splitter is in his first season working under Billups, but he has several years of experience as an NBA assistant, having worked in Brooklyn from 2019-23 and Houston in 2023/24, Charania notes (Twitter link). Splitter was also the head coach of Paris Basketball last season and led the club to its first championship in France’s top league (LNB Élite).
Before becoming a coach, Splitter played in the NBA for seven seasons, including five with the Spurs. The former forward/center won a title in San Antonio in 2014.
Splitter’s first game as Portland’s head coach will come on Friday when the Blazers host Golden State.
Obviously has to be Splitter. First year guy on the job.
Nate Bjorkgren would win too many games and the tanking would fail. Can’t have that.
I think Borkgren just decided he’d rather not be the face getting these questions nightly, his IND tenure went bad enough.
Bjorkgren didn’t exactly set the world on fire with the Pacers and some of the stuff that came out later didn’t help.
Right !! Makes sense guys. Plus, perhaps they see something in Splitter and will let him get his feet wet here? Now is as good as time as any.
Guy’s an interim bruh.
Playing poker on see-through-tables is some next level sh!t
As a transplanted Blazers fan now living in suburban Indianapolis, trust me when I tell you that you don’t want Nate Bjorkgren as head coach — even for one game. His in-game management is poor at best and he is unable to to counter when opponents switch up defenses to neutralize primary offensive options.
Splitter is a decent move and I’m happy to see him get the opportunity. I think the team will respond well to him.
As for Billups, he has probably coached his last game for Portland. Yet, the investigation and any criminal proceeding will need to play itself out before the league can mete out any punishment. And with the sale of the team closing in the next few months, it’s not likely either the Allen estate nor the Condun group want to jump right into what is likely to be an contested termination and litigation over what Billups will be owed on the balance of his contract.
Billups just told Ime Udoka to hold his beer.
Billups just told Ime Udoka to hold his beer.
Tiago is the next Joe Mazzulla if the Blazers can make the Playoffs / Play-In
Thought Splitter was back in Brazil. Chilling on Ipanema beach lols.
Billups is coming back he will fight this. Ultimately he will lose. But it will take time….
You think they’ll wanna bring him back after this? I’m not so sure they will.
They have to prove it. He can just say he was invited for his name. This can be prolonged. NBA doesn’t have strict penalties in place. This could make them get more struct about it. Which they should.
They should be looking at some refs…we all know KD called timeout in OT1 when they had none. Refs all turned away but they should be paying attention to floor action.
I expect the Blazers players will be upset by all this turmoil. Too bad, they might have made some noise this season.