By Steve Neavling
Federal prosecutors have charged Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former NBA player Damon Jones in an expansive gambling and fraud investigation that authorities compared to an “insider trading saga” for basketball, the Athletic reports.
The charges, unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn, stem from two indictments that also name more than 30 other defendants, including alleged members of the Bonanno, Gambino, Luchese, and Genovese crime families.
Billups, 49, a Hall of Famer and former NBA Finals MVP, is accused of taking part in a poker scheme dating back to 2019 that defrauded players out of tens of thousands of dollars. Prosecutors also described him as “Co-Conspirator 8” in a separate sports betting case, alleging he leaked information in March 2023 that the Blazers would rest top players before a game.
Rozier, 31, allegedly removed himself from a 2023 game to help co-conspirators profit from bets. His charges are part of the same probe that led to a guilty plea and lifetime ban for former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who admitted to fixing prop bets.
Jones, 49, a former teammate and shooting coach for LeBron James, is accused of selling inside injury information about Lakers players to gamblers. In one instance, prosecutors said he told a co-conspirator to “place a big bet” after learning a star player wouldn’t play that night, before the injury was publicly announced.
“This scheme exploited confidential NBA information for profit,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
The NBA placed Billups and Rozier on immediate leave, saying the league “takes these allegations with the utmost seriousness.” Billups was released after a court appearance in Portland and is due in New York federal court Nov. 24. His attorney, Chris Heywood, said Billups “is a man of integrity” and “men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others.”
