The NBA season got off to an exciting start this week, and not just on the court.
On Thursday morning, just two days after the first NBA games tipped off, the FBI arrested a player and a head coach as part of an investigation into illegal gambling.
Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier was arrested at a hotel in Orlando hours after his team lost to the Orlando Magic, ESPN reported. Rozier did not play in the game. Shortly after Rozier’s arrest was reported, ABC News broke the story that Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups had also been taken into custody and charged in an illegal poker operation tied to organized crime. Former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones was also arrested and charged in connection with illegal gambling, according to NBC News.
Rozier and Billups are set to be arraigned later on Thursday in the districts where they were arrested — Rozier in Orlando and Billups in Portland, according to the Department of Justice.
FBI Director Kash Patel and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York are expected to hold a press conference on the gambling sting at 10:00 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Rozier, a 10-year NBA veteran, has been investigated over mysterious gambling activity in the past. In March 2023, sportsbooks flagged strange betting activity on Rozier when he played for the Charlotte Hornets. During a game between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans, sportsbooks paused bets on Rozier after a professional gambler placed 30 wagers on the under for Rozier’s points, rebounds, and assists. Rozier left the game after just 10 minutes due to a foot injury, ESPN reported.
Rozier reportedly met with NBA and FBI officials in 2023, but an NBA investigation ultimately determined that he was in the clear.
“The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rules,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said earlier this year, according to The New York Post. “We are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation.”
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Billups, a former star point guard and NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons, has been the Trail Blazers’ head coach since 2021. He holds a 117-212 record as the Trail Blazers head coach.
The NBA faced a gambling scandal last year when former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter pled guilty to charges related to an illegal gambling scheme that implicated four other people. Porter schemed to take himself out of games early so that his prop bets would hit and his co-conspirators would win money. He was banned from the league for life and is awaiting sentencing in December.
A prop bet (proposition bet) is a wager on a specific event or stat within a game that doesn’t affect the final score, such as the performance of an individual player.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed gambling issues in the league during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, specifically calling out prop betting.
“We accept betting is legal in roughly 35 states now in the United States. It’s unlikely to go away,” he said. “I think probably there should be more regulation, frankly. … I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”
“We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver added.
This is a developing story; refresh the page for updates.
