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Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday as part of a federal investigation into illegal betting activities, federal law enforcement officials said during a news conference in New York.
Rozier, 31, was taken into custody in Orlando, where the Heat played on Wednesday night. He was accused of telling members of a betting ring that he would leave a game early, allowing them to wager on his prop bets with the knowledge that he would not rack up stats. Rozier’s agent, Aaron Turner, confirmed Rozier was arrested in relation to the federal probe, but said the player planned to fight the charges, having been previously cleared by the NBA.
Billups, 49, a Hall of Fame player before he became a coach, and ex-Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones were also arrested.
Prosecutors said at least two cases were pending separately but with some overlap and connections. One is related to sports betting, the other is related to poker games that prosecutors say were rigged.
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Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier arrested in federal gambling probe
In response to the federal indictments of Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, the NBA has issued its first public statement.
“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.”
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"It's a stunning development. The indictment seems very wide-ranging. Of course every single one of the individuals charged are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But it was a development that shocked the conscience of a lot of folks, particularly those who follow the NBA closely," New York representative and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said on CNN.
In The Athletic's annual anonymous survey of NBA players published in April, players were concerned with the league's gambling partnerships.
In response to the question "Are the NBA’s gambling partnerships good or bad for the league, and why?" 46 percent of the 150 respondents said those partnerships were bad, 34 percent responded good, 12 percent were somewhere in the middle and eight percent were undecided.
In 2021, the NBA partnered with FanDuel and DraftKings as its betting partners and several teams have done deals with casinos as well. (The Athletic has a partnership with BetMGM.) Fans can place bets at games or on their phones, and the athlete experience during games and online has often become toxic along the way.
The controversy has extended beyond the court, too. In a story written by Sam Amick and Josh Robbins based on the poll results, players expressed those concerns.
"The gambling partnerships are horrible for the league because you guys are selling your soul for the worst types of people in your fan base," one player said, "and they don’t see us as human beings anymore, which again, they never did.
"But you’re just going to start seeing more and more of — I hope not — you’re going to see more and more people throwing games because of under-the-table deals.”
The NBA runs mandatory education sessions about gambling for players, coaches, team personnel and referees. Betting on the NBA is prohibited for players, as spelled out in a player conduct memo distributed to teams and players. They cannot bet on games, competitions (like All-Star Skills competition) or events (like draft picks, contract signings, trades, awards, and coach hires) involving the NBA, WNBA, G League, NBA2K League and BAL; they also cannot participate in NBA fantasy sports that have cash prizes or offer winnings of value. They can bet on other sports.
“You may not participate in anyone else’s prohibiting betting, ask anyone to engage in prohibited betting on your behalf, or encourage anyone else to engage in prohibited betting,” the player conduct memo says. “You must avoid any involvement with prohibited betting.”
That closely tracks with Major League Baseball’s rules on gambling, which bars wagering on baseball and leaves room for legal betting elsewhere. The NFL suspended Calvin Ridley in 2021 for one year for betting on NFL games.
Read more on how the NBA monitors suspicious activity
Chauncey Billups signed a contract extension in Portland at the end of last season. However, that doesn't mean he'll get paid if the Blazers fire him. While coach and executive contracts typically are guaranteed even if the person is later fired for performance, they also contain "moral turpitude" clauses that don't require the team to pay out if the coach is fired "for cause" — basically, for breaking the law or otherwise causing reputational embarrassment to the franchise.
It has been almost seven years since the Supreme Court opened the door to legalized sports betting across the country, and the NBA now finds itself deep into this gambling world that comes with massive (financial) perks and problems.
The league partnered with FanDuel and DraftKings as its betting partners in 2021, and several teams have done deals with casinos as well. (The Athletic has a partnership with BetMGM.) With people able to place bets at games or on their phones, and the focus shifting from fandom to financial for so many observers, the athlete experience during games and online has often become toxic along the way. The controversy has extended beyond the court, too.
Last year, then-Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was banned from the league for what the NBA called a “cardinal sin” of betting on games and sharing inside info. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier has been under federal investigation as well, though the league has cleared him of any wrongdoing.
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The Lakers are currently not available to comment. Team and league sources said that Damon Jones wasn’t an employee of the Lakers at the time of these allegations. He was allowed to be in restricted spaces such as planes and locker rooms as he worked with LeBron James.
During questioning it was said that the NBA cooperated with the investigation and it was not related to college sports.
The FBI is known to have been looking into match fixing, with at least five universities being investigated.
Kash Patel, the FBI director, was also asked why he said this announcement would not be popular.
"It's not popular to go after some of the defendants we went after today," he said, adding: "Justice is blind."
The language mirrors the kind that Adam Silver uses for these types of situations and how he has talked about the Jontay Porter case.
On March 23, 2023, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, let others close to him know that he planned to leave early with injury. Associates bet more than $200,000 on Rozier's unders and winnings were delivered to Rozier's home, the indictment alleges.
By Dan Woike, Mike Vorkunov, Joe Vardon and Mike Prada
Damon Jones, who had restricted access to the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2022-23 season to work with LeBron James, is alleged to have shared non-public information about James with gamblers just days after James set the league’s all-time scoring record.
The Feb. 9, 2023, game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers referenced in the FBI’s investigation into sports betting was one that James did not play in. He was ruled out due to ankle soreness. The game came two days after James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
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The investigation was called "Operation Royal Flush" by law enforcement. It started about four years ago.
According to the indictment, Jones sold or tried to profit from non-public information so that others could bet on it, including Earnest and Fairley. It was about who would not be playing or if they would pull themselves out of games early. Before the Feb. 9, 2023, Lakers game against the Bucks, Jones texted an unnamed co-conspirator that a player was out and they should bet the Bucks. The player was not on the injury report yet. He also gave information on the 2023-24 Lakers including Player 4, who the DOJ said was one of the Lakers’ best players that season.
The two indictments lists 34 defendants.
Thirteen members of the Bonano, Gambino and Genovese crime familes, according to Christopher Raya, assistant director of the FBI’s NY field office.
Jones, 49, played 11 NBA seasons and also spent years following his career as both an assistant coach and personal shooting coach for LeBron James when James rejoined the Cavs in 2014. As a player with the Miami Heat and subsequently after his playing career was finished, Jones struggled with a gambling addiction that cost him large chunks of the millions he earned playing basketball, league sources said.
Fairley and Shane Hennen bet about $100,000 on that Blazers game, the DOJ alleges.
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The indictment said one unnamed co-conspirator told a co-defendant, Eric Earnest, that the Blazers were tanking ahead of a March 24, 2023, game and that a certain player would sit out. Earnest then shared that information with Marves Fairley, who shared it further and bet on it.
The fraud is mind boggling," FBI director Kash Patel said. "We're talking tens of millions of dollars in theft and fraud and robbery."
The DOJ alleges that Terry Rozier told a co-defendant, Deniro Laster, that he was going to take himself out during the first quarter of a March 23, 2023 Hornets game with an injury so that Laster could bet on it. Laster shared that information and was paid $100,000 for it by Marves Fairley, according to the indictment. That information was then shared with others, who bet on it, prosecutors said. Another defendant, Shane Hennen, bet $61,200 on prop bets on Rozier's unders, and then ordered a syndicate of associates to bet, too, the indictment said.
In all, $259,000 was waged on Rozier by that group, the indictment said. Rozier left that game after playing 9 minutes and 34 seconds.
