Canty: Rozier, Billups arrests jarring to say the least (1:32)Chris Canty reacts to Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups being arrested as part of an FBI gambling inquiry. (1:32)
On Thursday, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones were indicted in a pair of sweeping federal investigations into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games.
Doug Greenberg: Though they both involve current and former NBA players, the FBI made clear in its news conference that these are two separate cases, albeit with some overlap.
The first involves betting on NBA games, using insider information from players and coaches, and the second involves rigging high-stakes, Mafia-associated poker games against high rollers after enticing them to play with former NBA players, including Jones and Billups.
According to the case filing, between December 2022 and March 2024, a group of co-conspirators placed bets on at least seven NBA games using nonpublic information. Those games involved the Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic, Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors.
Rozier is accused of sharing inside information, removing himself early from at least one game for the benefit of gamblers and profiting from those bets, according to the indictment.
Although Billups is not named in the sports betting indictment, it describes a co-conspirator whose playing and coaching career match his. That co-conspirator allegedly told a bettor that the Trail Blazers were tanking and that several players would miss a March 2023 game.
Windhorst: Yes, Jontay Porter, formerly of the Toronto Raptors, pleaded guilty for his involvement last year. The NBA investigated Rozier in 2023 after suspicious betting on his prop bets in a game between the Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans — one of the games included in the indictment — and said it “did not find a violation of NBA rules.”
Those bettors, along with their associates and a network of proxy bettors, wagered on Rozier’s prop unders, according to the indictment. ESPN previously reported on betting activity involving Rozier’s props in the March 23 game.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty of Ifrah Law, said in a statement that his client is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.”
Windhorst: This question could create much of the fallout from these bombshell allegations. The NBA process, on this investigation, will certainly be put under the microscope. It also could affect an ongoing NBA investigation into Malik Beasley because the NBA will now need to be increasingly thorough as it proceeds. Beasley was not named in these indictments but is under federal investigation and will be subject to more scrutiny in the wake of them.
In an interesting twist, the second game in which Jones is accused of leaking the information to bettors — Jan. 15, 2024, against the Oklahoma City Thunder — James and Davis played, despite being on the injury report. The bet, on the Thunder, lost, and the co-conspirators asked Jones for their money back, according to the indictment. Jones insisted, the indictment says, that the intel was good.
A key difference between the allegations against Jones and Billups, though, is that Jones is accused of selling inside information.
Windhorst: The gap between when a player’s availability is decided and when it is announced has, for decades, been a target of gamblers trying to get inside information. As coaches, Billups and Jones would know the team’s plans for their players before they were reported to the league.
For generations, NBA teams have at times hidden the availability of players on game days, especially star players, for strategic reasons.
Sometimes, players are truly game-time decisions. And sometimes, they are called game-time decisions, even if the decision has been made hours before. It is from this area that this case seems to stem, and what the NBA must further address.
Windhorst: In the wake of gambling’s widespread legalization, the NBA has taken steps to improve transparency. This includes more detailed injury reports that are updated throughout the day, and fines for teams that do not follow protocol.
But as this indictment shows, the league might have to reexamine and further tighten its existing protocols.
Tim Bontemps: Jones was a journeyman NBA player, but best known for his time playing alongside LeBron James for three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005 to 2008, including as part of Cleveland’s 2007 NBA Finals team.
After his career ended, Jones spent time coaching with both the Cavaliers’ G League affiliate and with the Cavs during James’ second stint with the franchise from 2014 to 2018 and was an unofficial part of former Lakers coach Darvin Ham’s staff in the 2022-2023 season.
The Cavs had previously announced that they were resting their starters for that game, and the Magic became a heavy favorite. The friend then shared this information with a co-conspirator, who bet on the Cavs to cover the spread.
When the Magic later also benched their starters, in a common late-season tactic, the Cavs won in a blowout.
Greenberg: Since at least 2019, a group of co-conspirators organized illegal, high-stakes poker games across the United States designed to defraud wealthy players out of their money, totaling $7.15 million, according to the indictment. These games were supported by four of the five crime families that make up the Italian-American Mafia, otherwise known as La Cosa Nostra: Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese and Bonanno.
Besides the victims, everyone involved in the games, including Billups and Jones, as well as the dealers, was involved in the scheme and received a cut of the victims’ losses, according to the indictment. The victims of the poker games were not identified in the indictment.
Once the victims lost, the Mafia used extortion and violence to make sure they paid their debts, according to the indictment.
Jones allegedly sold insider information to the co-conspirators in the NBA betting case and served as a “face card” in the poker scheme.
Eric Earnest and Shane Hennen allegedly bet on NBA games using nonpublic information and were members of the cheating teams in the poker scheme, according to the case filings. Hennen also provided some of the technology used to cheat in the games, according to the indictment.
David Purdum: Billups and Rozier have been indicted on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, according to records. Each count carries no more than 20 years in prison, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Hu.
Greenberg: Porter previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with this case and is awaiting sentencing. At Thursday’s news conference, U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said that the co-conspirators threatened Porter into cooperating in order to clear previous gambling debts.
Greenberg: In July, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was arrested in connection with illegal poker games staged at his house in Encino, California. Though there are some similarities between that case and Thursday’s indictments, Arenas’ scheme involved the Israeli mafia and does not appear to be directly related to the more recent case.
Greenberg: It’s not clear. In June, ESPN reported that Malik Beasley was under federal investigation on allegations of gambling related to NBA games and prop bets. Two months later, Beasley’s attorney said he was no longer a target of the investigation. The NBA has since launched its own investigation into Beasley.
Purdum: ESPN previously reported that some of the same gambling accounts that bet on Rozier and Porter props also bet on college basketball games that were flagged for suspicious betting. Sources told ESPN that the FBI has been interviewing college athletes and that they believe indictments are forthcoming.
Tim Bontemps: From an on-court perspective, the biggest ramification is Billups’ removal from the sidelines for one of the NBA’s more intriguing young teams this season.
Portland, which has been an also-ran in the Western Conference for the past few years but was hoping to make a playoff push this season, traded for Jrue Holiday this offseason and signed Shaedon Sharpe and Toumani Camara to extensions last week. Billups and general manager Joe Cronin received contract extensions earlier this year, as well.
Bobby Marks: Rozier signed a four-year $96.3 million contract with Charlotte on Aug. 24, 2021, and then was traded to Miami on Jan. 23, 2024. He has one year and $26.6 million left, $24.9 million, which is guaranteed. He is owed 24 payments of $1,110,126, starting Nov. 15 and concluding on Nov. 1, 2026. Including this season, Rozier has a career $161.7 million of on-court earnings.
If the league determines that Rozier has violated this rule, it is allowed to expel him from the NBA. His $26.6 million salary would then be removed from the salary cap. The Heat are currently $1.6 million below the luxury tax and $7.2 million under the first apron hard cap. They currently have an open roster spot.
Although Rozier has not been found guilty, the NBA banned Porter nearly three months before he pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in connection to the same gambling case.
Greenberg: “We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today,” the NBA said in a statement Thursday. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
The NBA was the first major American sports league to endorse legalized sports betting. In 2014, four years before the beginning of legalized online sports betting in the United States, Silver penned an op-ed for the New York Times titled “Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting.”
“Let me be clear: Any new approach must ensure the integrity of the game,” Silver wrote at the time. “One of my most important responsibilities as commissioner of the NBA is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport. I oppose any course of action that would compromise these objectives.”