NBA coach Chauncey Billups of the Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested on Thursday for alleged involvement in illegal gambling, US officials said.
Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and member of the NBA Hall of Fame, was arrested in connection with rigged illegal poker games tied to the Mafia, FBI Director Kash Patel said.
Rozier and a former NBA player, Damon Jones, were arrested in a sports betting case, Patel said at a press conference in New York.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella said the 49-year-old Billups was one of 31 people arrested for involvement in a “nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games.”
Rozier and Jones allegedly “participated in one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States,” Nocella said.
He described it as “an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about National Basketball Association athletes and teams.”
The defendants were involved in illegal betting on the performance of players on the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors, Nocella said.
Billups retired from the NBA as a player in 2014 and has been the head coach of the Trail Blazers since 2021.
Billups was on the bench for the team’s first game of the season on Wednesday, a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rozier, 31, was the 16th overall pick by the Boston Celtics in the 2015 draft.
He has averaged 13.9 points per game playing for three teams over his 11-year NBA career.
Rozier is suffering from a hamstring injury and did not play in the Heat’s opening game of the NBA season on Wednesday.
An NBA player, Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors, was banned from the league for life last year for his role in a betting scandal.
Porter, the younger brother of Michael Porter Jr. of the Brooklyn Nets, was accused of placing bets linked to his performance on the court.
He has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.
NBA players are forbidden from wagering on NBA games under league rules. Those found to have gambled on NBA games risk a fine, suspension or life ban.
Billups’s arrest comes three months after that of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, who was arrested in July on charges of running illegal poker games at his Los Angeles mansion.
Arenas, who starred for the Washington Wizards, rented out the luxury home that he owned in Encino “for the purposes of hosting high-stakes illegal poker games” between September 2021 and July 2022, according to his indictment.
Arenas is charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, one count of operating an illegal gambling business, and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.
He has pleaded not guilty.
AFP
