You’re excused if you suddenly got a sinking feeling about the parlay you bet on tonight’s slate of NBA games.
You have every reason to feel skittish about laying a little action on the NBA considering that Thursday morning, just two days after the start of the 2025-26 regular season, the FBI arrested and charged Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, former NBA player and coach Damon Jones and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in two separate indictments. Billups and Jones are accused of participating in rigged poker games that included involvement by mafia members. Jones and Rozier are accused of using insider knowledge about NBA teams and players to help people place bets. If that’s true, then it might be considered sports’ worst gambling scandal since former NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty in 2007 to betting on games he officiated.
To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.”
attorney chris heywood
Actually, I take that back. If the government’s claims are true — that Rozier, Jones and others with insider knowledge about teams and players bet on games played by the Trail Blazers, Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors — then it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this the worst scandal in NBA history. It would also be one of the worst gambling scandals in American sports in at least a generation.
“We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery,” said FBI Director Kash Patel when he announced the charges Thursday morning.
Billups and Jones were allegedly part of a 31-person ring that included Mafia members and scammed people out of $7.15 million during elaborately rigged poker games.
Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, described his client as a “man of integrity,” and said Billups will fight the charges and is not guilty of any wrongdoing. “Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others,” Heywood said. “To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.”
Rozier had previously been cleared by the NBA after an investigation related to betting activity connected to games he played in, a fact that his attorney brought up after his arrest. “Terry was cleared by the NBA, and these prosecutors revived that non-case,” attorney Jim Trusty said in a statement. “Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”
According to NBC News, it’s unclear if Jones has an attorney, and calls made to a number believed to be his were not returned. Each of the three is entitled to a presumption of innocence before the law.
Their respective teams placed Billups and Rozier on leave Thursday and, the NBA said in a statement Thursday that it is cooperating with authorities. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the statement read.
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.
attorney jim trusty
The insider knowledge the government said Rozier, Jones and others improperly exploited included information about injuries, player absences and even which teams were trying to lose games to better their chances of picking early in the draft.
The scandal has ruined what appeared to be a great start to the 2025-26 season. The league began a promising season with a thrilling double-overtime game that ended with a player missing a potentially game-winning shot at the buzzer. The owners have made peace with the league’s players’ union, and the league just started a lucrative new broadcast and streaming era marked by an 11-year, $76 billion deal with Amazon, NBC and Disney — which owns ESPN — for the rights to carry its games. The league may have believed the worst problem it would have is finding time between its seemingly ubiquitous televised games to rake in and count its cash. NBC and MSNBC are both owned by Comcast.
Instead, this entire NBA season is likely to be played under the shadow of a federal investigation and possibly court dates and trials. There’s no way that won’t cast a pall over the season, and it will be difficult for some fans not to question the integrity of every game they watch. After all, the government says that in a March 23, 2023, game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans, Rozier — then a starter for the Hornets — let a childhood friend know he was going to “prematurely remove himself from the game in the first quarter due to a supposed injury and not return to play further,” and that friend, the government says, sold that info to others who placed bets that resulted in thousands of dollars in winnings.








