Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested on Thursday for alleged involvement in illegal gambling schemes that have shaken the NBA.
Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and NBA Hall of Famer, was taken into custody in connection with rigged illegal poker games tied to Mafia crime families, FBI Director Kash Patel said.
Rozier and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones were among six people arrested in a related sports betting case, Patel told reporters at a press conference in New York.
“The fraud is mind boggling,” Patel said. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”
Both Billups and Rozier were placed on immediate leave following their arrests, the NBA confirmed. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the league said in a statement.
Billups and Rozier have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Rozier appeared in federal court in Orlando, Florida, where he was ordered to post bond and surrender his passport before being released. He is scheduled to appear in court in New York on 8 December. Billups, who appeared in federal court in Portland, Oregon, was released on bond and agreed to appear in New York on 24 November.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella said the 49-year-old Billups was among more than 30 people indicted in a “nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games.” He added that Billups’s fame was used to attract players to high-stakes games that employed “high-tech cheating technology,” including card-reading shufflers, hidden cameras and barcoded decks.
Rozier and Jones allegedly took part in “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalised in the United States,” Nocella said. The defendants are accused of betting illegally on the performance of players from the Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors.
One of the seven NBA games cited in the indictment took place on 23 March 2023, when Rozier was playing for the Hornets. He allegedly told co-conspirators he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury, leading them to place over $200,000 in bets on his performance. Rozier exited after nine minutes, and the bets produced “tens of thousands of dollars in profit,” New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Although Billups was not named in the sports betting indictment, one unnamed co-conspirator described in the case matches his playing and coaching history.
Rozier, 31, has averaged 13.9 points per game over his 11-year NBA career and was previously linked to an illegal gambling probe that led to the lifetime ban of former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter last year.
The NBA said in January it had found no evidence Rozier violated league rules but confirmed it was cooperating with the federal investigation.
Rozier’s lawyer, James Trusty, said prosecutors were “taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence.” He added: “Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”
The National Basketball Players Association also issued a statement, saying: “The integrity of the game is paramount to NBA players, but so is the presumption of innocence, and both are hindered when player popularity is misused to gain attention. We will ensure our members are protected and afforded their due process rights through this process.”
Prosecutors said Jones, who played and coached for the Cleveland Cavaliers, acted as an “unofficial assistant coach” for the Lakers during the 2022–23 season, passing on inside information about player injuries and availability that gave bettors an advantage.
League rules prohibit players and other personnel from wagering on NBA games or providing confidential information that could influence performance or outcomes before it becomes public.
