Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Damon Jones are among 34 people charged in connection with schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia, authorities said on Thursday.
Rozier is accused in participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said. Billups is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games, authorities said.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Damon Jones are among 34 people charged.
Assistant coach and former NBA player Tiago Splitter has been named as the team’s interim head coach, according to a statement released Thursday by the Portland Trail Blazers. The six defendants in the sports betting indictment include former NBA player and coach Damon Jones, current NBA player Terry Rozier, one of Rozier’s close friends. Those details perfectly match how Lillard was listed on injury reports that day.Similar patterns were found with Lakers games involving James and Davis, with Jones alleged to have shared their injury information before it was publicly known.
Rozier’s attorney told reporters outside the federal courthouse after Thursday’s hearing about the March 23, 2023, game between Charlotte and New Orleans that was the focus of the charges. The NBA star played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds in the first quarter before exiting and did not play again in that game or the final eight games of the season.
Two of the defendants portrayed themselves on Instagram as successful sports bettors and sold sports betting picks through their profiles, according to the indictment. For the Portland game, defendant Eric Earnest, investigators said, was given information that a player who had been listed as probable and then questionable to play that day would not play at all. In one of the cases, investigators said, Jones got the details wrong and caused some bettors who placed large wagers to lose. “The integrity of the game is paramount to NBA players, but so is the presumption of innocence, and both are hindered when player popularity is misused to gain attention,” the union said. “We will ensure our members are protected and afforded their due process rights through this process.“ Separately, National Hockey League spokesman John Dellapina said the NHL has not been contacted by the FBI and is not aware of any of its employees being implicated in the federal investigation.
