What the Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier arrests could mean for the rest of the NBA

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday morning due to their alleged participation in two separate illegal sports gambling schemes, the FBI announced in a Thursday press conference.

Another former NBA player and assistant coach, Damon Jones, was also indicted for alleged involvement in both schemes.

The NBA had previously investigated and, in January, announced it had cleared Rozier of wrongdoing after being alerted to “unusual betting activity” related to prior performances.

But according to the FBI, Rozier did in fact conspire to prematurely leave a game on March 23, 2023 with an injury, sharing that information with other co-conspirators who were among the 30 individuals arrested in the government’s investigation. On that night, Rozier played less than 10 minutes before leaving the game with a sore right foot.

The FBI alleged those co-conspirators wagered more than $200,000 betting successfully the under on Rozier’s prop bets that game.

Billups was arrested under allegations of participating in a massive scheme where he and others, including Jones, cheated at high stakes poker games using sophisticated technology to read cards. The games were organized to allow victims to play against former NBA players. Unbeknownst to these participants, the games were rigged by organized crime families and involved altered shuffling machines that read and relayed cards to an “off-site operator,” who shared that information to those on the table, according to the FBI. The scheme also included contact lenses and glasses that could convey information about the cards.

The NBA released the following statement on Thursday:

“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. 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.”

A lawyer representing Rozier also denied the charges in a statement, saying, in part, “Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”

What’s the connection between these two cases?

Jones, who played 11 seasons in the NBA and spent three years as an assistant for the Cleveland Cavaliers, is alleged to have been involved in both the prop betting and the illegal poker schemes. Beyond that, there has been no confirmed connection made between these two cases involving Rozier and Billups, respectively, beyond the fact that both are currently under active employment in the NBA.

If Billups had been connected to an in-game betting scheme, it would have had staggering implications to the league’s integrity given the level of control that a head coach has over what happens on the court. If Billups is found to have shared inside information with gamblers, this scandal would only intensify.

Previously, Billups had been publicly named and accused of participated in these rigged games in 2023 on a gambling podcast called Solve For Why.

What are the on-court implications of these indictments?

In its statement, the NBA said that Billups and Rozier have both been placed on immediate leave. Rozier, by coach’s decision, did not play in the Miami Heat’s season opener, a 125-121 defeat to the Orlando Magic, on Wednesday. Portland will continue its season without its head coach for the foreseeable future after he was on the sidelines for its respective opener, a 118-114 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Are these indictments related to prior NBA gambling schemes?

In March 2024, the NBA announced that Jontay Porter, at the time playing for the Toronto Raptors, was being investigated for sports betting irregularities similar to the allegations that have been brought against Rozier. The following month, Porter was banned for life from the NBA after he was found guilty in a scheme to have communicated to co-conspirators his plan to prematurely leave games through injury.

In these indictments, the FBI said Porter had been threatened to participated in these schemes due to outstanding gambling debts he had accrued prior to his involvement in the criminal scheme itself.

What broader implications does this have for the league?

The NBA has increasingly aligned itself with sports gambling companies under Adam Silver, who in 2014 wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times headlined, “Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting.” In national television broadcasts this week, you can’t miss the proliferation of sports betting companies and their promotion within and throughout the league’s product.

In 2023, Miriam Adelson and the Sands Corporation, a company with massive casino operations in Asia, purchased the Dallas Mavericks and spent millions lobbying for sports gambling to be legalized in the state of Texas. That hasn’t happened, and team governor Patrick Dumont, Adelson’s son-in-law, has publicly backed off the initial idea that the team’s new arena would include an attached casino and sportsbook.

It is, however, another example of the league becoming increasingly entrenched with sports gambling as an industry.

There’s no indication that the league will reconsider their investments into the sports gambling industry.

Tim Cato is ALLCITY’s national NBA writer currently based in Dallas.  He can be reached at tcato@alldlls.com or on X at @tim_cato.