Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier arrests escalate sprawling NBA betting scandal

The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. federal betting investigation into NBA players.

NEW YORK – Just two days into its new season, the NBA was rocked by a sweeping federal indictment of illegal gambling charges unsealed Thursday which resulted in the arrests of a head coach, a current player and a longtime confidant of the game’s most prolific scorer, and allegedly involved the participation of four reputed mafia crime families in New York.

Hall of Fame player and current Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and Damon Jones, a former player who was a teammate of LeBron James and was once his personal shooting coach, were charged.

“This is the insider trading saga for the NBA,” FBI director Kash Patel said at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn.

Billups, 49, inducted into the hall of fame in 2024, was indicted for his alleged participation in a wide-ranging, years’ long scheme to defraud card players in poker games that were said to have involved numerous members of the Bonano, Gambino, Luchese and Genovese crime families in New York.

Rozier, 31, is charged for allegedly taking himself out of a game on purpose in 2023 so a co-conspirator could place a bet and win. These charges stem from the ongoing investigation that produced a guilty plea – and subsequent lifetime ban from basketball – for former Raptors player Johntay Porter, who bet on NBA games and manipulated his own performance so co-conspirators could win money on prop bets. Porter pleaded guilty in July 2024 to one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Following the charges, Billups and Rozier were placed on leave by the NBA.

Jones, 49, was charged in both cases. The two indictments include 34 defendants, with 13 men accused of being involved in organized crime.

Jones is a former teammate of LeBron James with the Miami Heat, and James brought Jones to Cleveland in 2014, first as his personal shooting coach. Jones was later promoted to a full-time assistant coach with the Cavs and joined James in Los Angeles. Jones was not formally employed by the Lakers, but was around the team often and was allowed to fly to away games on the team plane.

Jones, the indictment said, was a teammate or coach “of a prominent NBA player,” who it called Player 3. It said that Jones used his relationship with that player and the team to gain information that he then sold to professional gamblers. Jones, according to prosecutors, found out on the morning of Feb. 9, 2023, that Player 3 would not play in the Lakers’ game against the Bucks that night and told an unnamed co-conspirator to place a “big bet” on the Bucks because he was out. Player 3 had not been named on the team’s injury report yet but would miss the game. James did not play in that game.

A league source with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic that James was unaware that Jones shared information about his playing status.

Jones also shared information on another top Lakers player, the indictment said, ahead of a game on Jan. 15, 2024, after he learned from a trainer that the player was hurt and his minutes or performance would be affected. Marves Fairley, another defendant, bet $100,000 against the Lakers for this game and the injury report simply said that the player was probable. The Lakers, however won the game, and the player played to form and Fairley asked Jones to repay him the $2,500 he was paid for the information, according to the indictment.

United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. called the charges against Rozier and Jones “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.

“This scheme is an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about National Basketball Association athletes and teams,” Nocella said.

“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today,” the NBA said in a statement. “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 takes these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

The Lakers declined to comment.

Rozier was taken into custody in Orlando, where the Heat played on Wednesday night, and is expected to appear at a hearing in federal court there Thursday. Billups was also arrested on Thursday after coaching the Blazers’ season-opening home loss to Minnesota on Wednesday night. Billups is expected to appear at a hearing in Portland Thursday. Arraignment hearings for them and for Jones are expected in New York this week.

Rozier’s alleged crime occurred in 2023, when he was playing for the Charlotte Hornets. The federal indictments name illegal betting activities around at least two more teams – the Orlando Magic and Trail Blazers (the charges against Billups have nothing to do with basketball) – in addition to the Hornets and Lakers.

The government alleges that Rozier told a co-defendant, Deniro Laster, that he was going to take himself out a Hornets game on March 23, 2023, in the first quarter with an injury so Laster could bet on it. Laster shared that information and was paid $100,000 for it by Fairley, according to the indictment. That information was then shared with others, who bet on it. Another defendant, Shane Hennen, bet $61,200 on prop bets related to Rozier, and then ordered a syndicate of associates to bet too, according to the government.

In all, $259,00 was wagered on Rozier by that group. Rozier left that game after playing 9 minutes and 34 seconds.

In a statement, Jim Trusty, Rozier’s lawyer, said “we have represented Terry Rozier for over a year. A long time ago we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication. They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel.

“It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self surrender they opted for a photo op,” Trusty said. “They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case.”

In January, the NBA said it had conducted an investigation after being notified about unusual betting activity related to Rozier’s performance in that game, and “did not find a violation of NBA rules.”

“Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case,” Trusty’s statement added. “Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”

Fairley, one of the co-conspirators with Rozier, is accused along with an unnamed co-conspirator of using a personal relationship with one of the Magic’s starters ahead of a April 6, 2023 game to find out that the Magic would not play its entire starting lineup. They then bet on the game.

The indictment also said that 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 Fairley, who shared it further and bet on it. Billups was coach of the Blazers, then, but is not accused of wrongdoing in this particular case.

Billups and Jones are accused of participating in a mob-run, hi-tech scheme to defraud poker players in Miami, Las Vegas, the Hamptons, and New York. Both men were known as “Face Cards,” used by the cheating teams to help lure victims into the games. Wireless cheating technology was used to fleece the victims out of tens of thousands of dollars, including altered off-the-shelf shuffling machines.

Federal authorities investigated the poker ring for at least four years, and the name of the investigation was “Operation Royal Flush.”

Billups was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 2024 following a 17-year career in which he was a five-time All-Star and the 2004 NBA Finals MVP.

Jones, 49, played 11 NBA seasons. 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.

The Supreme Court opened the door to legalized sports gambling in May 2018 by ruling, essentially, that it was up to individual states.

The NBA has multiple business arrangements with major betting brands such as DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM, and several of its teams host sportsbooks in their arenas, in which they are paid a percentage of the handle, which is the amount of money wagered. (The Athletic also has a partnership with BetMGM.)

Under commissioner Adam Silver, the NBA (in conjunction with the other pro leagues) has sought a federal sports betting law from Congress, but many lobbying efforts have not gained traction.

Today, sports betting is legal and regulated in 38 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Nocella said the charges filed Thursday were not related to federal investigations into college sports betting.

Last month the NCAA banned three basketball players, Mykell Robinson and Steven Vasquez of San Jose State and Jalen Weaver of Fresno State, and announced it was investigating 13 former men’s basketball players at Arizona State, Eastern Michigan, Mississippi Valley State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T, and Temple. Additionally, five former Iowa State football coaches received show-cause orders — basically a ban — for placing bets on college sports, including games involving their own teams.

In 1993, the NBA investigated its most famous player, Michael Jordan, for his ties to at least one gambler, whom he paid $57,000 to settle a wager stemming from a round of golf. According to reports, the league determined that Jordan did not wager on NBA games and violated no league rules.

In 2007, then-NBA official Tim Donaghy was caught betting on games in which he officiated. He was suspended and resigned, and served 11 months of a 15-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to two charges related to his gambling scheme.

Pete Rose, one of the greatest baseball players ever, accepted a lifetime ban from then-Major League commissioner Bart Giamatti for betting on games, including on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. A difference between Rose and Porter’s alleged bets — Rose bet on the Reds to win.

In 2023 alone, the NFL suspended Quintez Cephus, C.J. Moore, Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill of the Detroit Lions; Isaiah Rodgers Sr. Rashod Berry, and Demetrius Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts, Shaka Toney of the Washington Commanders, Nicholas Petit-Frere of the Tennessee Titans, and Eyioma Uwazurike of the Denver Broncos for varying amounts of time due to gambling infractions.

Ralph D. Russo and Dan Woike contributed reporting.

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