Thursday October 23rd, the year of our lord 2025, the FBI arrested a current NBA head coach Chauncey Billups, a current player Terry Rozier, and a former player Damon Jones. Also arrested were 31 others who included members of four New York Organized crime families. More on this in a moment, first some league history on this.
Tim Donaghy was a former NBA official he resigned in July 2007 after the FBI put out a report, he bet on games which HE OFFICIATED. Donaghy even admitted to making calls to satisfy the point spread, allowing essentially a manufactured outcome. Donaghy admitted when pleading guilty to betting on games during the 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007 seasons. Yep. He served 15 months in prison. To show how big of a f**k up Donaghy is, he got released 5 months early, violated his release terms and was SENT BACK TO PRISON. Donaghy has a laundry list of other transgressions such as cheating on the SAT exam, but it’s not relevant here.
Last year reserve guard for Toronto, Johntay Porter, was banned for life for disclosing information to gamblers regarding his own stats, aka prop bets. In essence Porter told folks to bet on him to score fewer points than “Vegas” predicted because he was going to fake an injury. Porter seldom played, so on the occasions he did intentionally do this, it was easy to track the large amounts of bets that “won” compared to the very small amounts of normal bets on him.
Also last year, Terry Rozier was named as being under investigation to do with gambling. Rozier is named above. The NBA cleared him of any wrongdoing in January of 2024. Rozier played a game the night before he was arrested by the FBI. Why was he cleared?
Malik Beasley is a very good player, formerly of the Detroit Pistons, he was named as being under investigation by the NBA at the same time and for the same thing as Rozier. He was cleared as well by the NBA of any wrongdoing. He remains a free agent. Beasley is 28, and as was announced yesterday, has not been cleared by the FBI.
In the case of Rozier and Beasley why did the NBA clear them?
Because the NBA doesn’t care about you the fan or the betters, they only care about $$$. The stench of the Donaghy scandal got me to quit watching the NBA. Rigged and fixed games do not sit well with me. There once was a time when my parents used to have to pull me away from the game to eat dinner. The NBA lost me, and a colleague of mine… both of us agree those games are rigged. Of course, the 90-day guy still watches nightly. He doesn’t care because he thinks its on the up and up.
In this case Rozier, Jones, and Billups are accused of insider sports betting, think like members of Congress doing insider trading. Billups is accused of quite literally passing on to organized crime members that he was going to “tank” or throw a game by sitting his best players moments before a game. Damon Jones is accused of passing on inside information that a player, which appears to be Lebron James, would be sitting out due to injury minutes before a game, hence the Lakers would very likely lose. He did it again as well regarding another star player on the Lakers, Anthony Davis.
Blogger note: Neither Lebron James nor Anthony Davis are implicated or arrested. They did nothing wrong.
Rozier took himself out of the game, also known as faking an injury. This is alleged to have happened more than once and like Porter, there was heavy betting action on Rozier not scoring a certain number of points, Rozier, unlike Porter, was a very high paid star player.
Reality will soon set in for these three, they will be trading in their celebrity lifestyles for prison garb sometime in the future. None will play/coach again. Check out what they are accused of, and some of the proof the prosecutors have in the form of text messages. This is no witch hunt.
Folks, the late NBA commissioner David J Stern said it best when it came to legalizing sports betting in New Jersey.
- Criticized New Jersey’s motives: He stated that New Jersey “has no idea what it’s doing and doesn’t care at all because all it’s interested in is making a buck or two”.
- Warned of irreparable harm: Stern testified that sports gambling “threatens to harm irreparably” the NBA’s relationship with its fanbase. He feared that legalized betting could shift fan focus from the teams to the betting lines.
- Challenged Governor Christie: He took a personal shot at then-Governor Chris Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, for attacking a federal law prohibiting sports betting.
- Joined leagues’ lawsuit: The NBA, NFL, MLB, and NCAA, with Stern as a lead voice, filed a lawsuit that successfully stopped New Jersey’s initial 2012 attempt to legalize sports betting.
To be clear, and in full transparency, Stern did change his tune circa 2015 after he retired as commissioner.
The league’s current commissioner, I mean stooge Adam Silver, has always embraced gambling on sports, even online and electronically. Ever since 2018 when the Supreme Court ruled on this leaving it up to the states, the NBA has been sponsored by FanDuel and Draft Kings, among others. My understanding is there are a plethora of online sports books who run ads during the games. Understand gambling is still illegal in several states including the legacy office location of this blog.
The online part I have an issue with, and my biggest concern, is how can one verify an identity or address of someone online? Hell, the Troll is completely anonymous! What stops me from gambling, and claiming my address is in Indiana? No one cares if I lose, but what if I win a big one? I have a feeling that a ton of players are gambling online under an alias or pseudonym. Make it so you must bet in person.
Folks, the only way the league learns is when gambling totally hurts the league’s image. Sadly, that doesn’t happen when large numbers of people continue to watch and attend as if nothing happened. As demonstrated above, this is no one off, it’s a major issue and will only get worse. Check out the gambling by players going on at the collegiate level!
Oh, look worse Tim Donaghy got to weigh in on this issue…
“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, like you said earlier,” Donaghy told Chris Cuomo on his show “Cuomo” on The Hill’s sister network NewsNation.
“I think maybe you’re going to see a bigger scandal coming out of the college level because you have these young athletes that aren’t going to make it to the next level,” Donaghy said. “Somebody’s going to offer them money to maybe fix a game.”
These athletes take the money “because they’re going to need a way to support their families,” the former referee continued.
Nope. Sorry Tim, you were the tip of the iceberg. You walked so these guys could run.
Here are the games in question,
2:08 p.m. PDT, October 23, 2025
We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more about the investigation here, or by scrolling through the posts below.
1:40 p.m. PDT, October 23, 2025
Sports gambling suspensions for pro athletes are on the rise
From CNN’s Alex Leeds Matthews and Annette Choi
Today’s sports rigging and gambling indictments — which included arrests of an active NBA player and head coach — mark the latest in a slate of professional athletes and coaches facing gambling investigations.
Since the Supreme Court declared bans on sports gambling unconstitutional in 2018, at least 23 professional players or coaches have been suspended or permanently banned from their leagues for sports betting violations.
While no major-league professional athletes have faced gambling-related disciplinary suspensions or bans yet this year, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been on paid leave since July due to an MLB probe of sports betting.
The NBA says Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups have been placed on leave after their arrests this morning.
12:58 p.m. PDT, October 23, 2025
What we learned from the indictments about the alleged gambling schemes involving NBA players and the mafia
From CNN’s Elise Hammond
FBI Director Kash Patel leads a news conference in New York on Thursday.
Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
Rigged poker games, insider sports betting and mafia ties. And no, it’s not a new Hollywood movie — these are elements of alleged illegal gambling schemes laid out in two indictments today, following a years-long investigation.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, Chauncey Billups, were arrested in connection to the probe. Their initial court hearings will happen later today. A third NBA figure, former player Damon Jones, is also being charged in the investigation, officials said.
Here’s what we know about the dual operations — one centered on an underground poker ring and the other on fixed sports betting on NBA games — from officials and the indictments:
Poker games:
- Top lines: The defendants, including members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese New York crime families, are accused of using cheating technology to steal millions from victims during rigged poker games in Manhattan and other parts of the state.
- Who was involved: Organizers enlisted NBA figures — including Billups — to sit at the table and help make the games appear legitimate to victims, according to law enforcement.
- How it unfolded: The defendants used a shuffling machine to count the cards and predict who had the best hand, prosecutors allege. That information was then transmitted to someone sitting at the table who used signals to communicate it with others in on the scheme. They also used decoy cell phones and marked cards that could only be seen with special glasses, the indictment says.
- The financial losses: It is estimated the victims lost more than $7 million in the games since 2019, according to the indictment. One particular victim losing $1.8 million in total, documents say.
- Additional allegations: The scheme went beyond just fixing poker games and involved violence, including robberies, the indictment says. The defendants are also accused of laundering money using shell companies and cryptocurrency, documents show.
Sports betting:
- What happened: Defendants named in this indictment are accused of exploiting insider information to bet on NBA games, US Attorney Joe Nocella said. The nature of this information included things like when players would be sitting out and when they would pull themselves out of a game due to injury, he said.
- How the scheme worked: The player information would be passed a long to other members of the scheme, who would wager money, documents say, mostly on individual player performances and statistics. Noecella said it involved the performance of players on several teams, including the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Lakers.
- Injury reports: In one instance, the indictment details how Rozier allegedly faked an injury in 2023. He told another person involved that he was going to leave the game early, allowing members of the group to bet on the “under” of his statistics, as outlined in the indictment. In another example, Jones is accused of leaking information about LeBron James’ injury to bettors, according to court documents.
CNN’s Kyle Feldscher, Amy Woodyatt and Haven Orecchio-Egresitz contributed reporting to this post.
12:25 p.m. PDT, October 23, 2025
Portland Trail Blazers say coach Chauncey Billups has been placed on leave after arrest From CNN’s Jill Martin and Kyle Feldscher
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups has been placed on leave.
Scott Kinser/Imagn Images/USA Today Sports/Reuters
The Portland Trail Blazers say Tiago Splitter will take over head coaching duties after Chauncey Billups was placed on leave following his arrest this morning.
“We are aware of the allegations involving head coach Chauncey Billups, and the Trail Blazers are fully cooperating with the investigation. Billups has been placed on immediate leave, and Tiago Splitter will assume head coaching duties in the interim. Any further questions should be directed to the NBA,” the Blazers said in a statement.
Billups has been the coach in Portland since 2021.
CNN has also contacted the Miami Heat, which declined to comment separately on the arrest of guard Terry Rozier and directed CNN to the NBA’s statement on the investigation. Rozier has also been placed on leave, according to the league.
10:50 a.m. PDT, October 23, 2025
These are the NBA games at the center of the betting probe
From CNN’s George Ramsay
Then-Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier shoots the ball during an NBA game in New Orleans on March 23, 2023. He left the game after nine minutes.
Derick Hingle/AP
The US Justice Department laid out in detail this morning how several NBA players and coaches, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, allegedly used non-public information about upcoming NBA games to allow others to profit on betting.
These are the relevant games listed by the Justice Department in a news release:
March 23, 2023 — Charlotte Hornets vs. New Orleans Pelicans
Rozier allegedly tipped off longtime friend Deniro Laster that he planned to leave the game early due to a supposed injury. He then left the game after 9 minutes, “generating tens of thousands of dollars in profits,” according to the DOJ.
March 24, 2023 — Portland Trail Blazers vs. Chicago Bulls
Defendant Eric Earnest allegedly “received, and then passed on, insider information from a longtime friend, an NBA coach at the time, that several of the Blazers’ top players would sit out a game against the Chicago Bulls,” the DOJ said.
April 6, 2023 — Orlando Magic vs. Cleveland Cavaliers
A co-conspirator allegedly “leveraged a relationship” with a Magic player to learn that several of the team’s top players would sit out a game against the Cavaliers, the DOJ said.
February 9, 2023 — Los Angeles Lakers vs. Milwaukee Bucks and January 15, 2024 — Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Former NBA player Damon Jones allegedly “shared and sold insider information on numerous occasions about undisclosed information relating to NBA games, such as lineup decisions and pre-release medical information, to his co-conspirators,” according to the DOJ. One of these exchanges came ahead of a game in which superstar LeBron James did not play.
January 26, 2024 — Toronto Raptors vs. Los Angeles Clippers and March 20, 2024 — Toronto Raptors vs. Sacramento Kings
Former Raptors player Jontay Porter allegedly told connections that “he would prematurely exit the games” due to supposed injuries, the DOJ said.
How does that make you feel folks? You bet on games that had a predetermined outcome! This stuff is as fake as that WWE wrestling BS. It’s all scripted. But hey, do not listen to me, keep paying $300 a month for cable to watch rigged games.
The Chief
PS, the NBA also has a long history of their draft “lottery” having very odd outcomes in favor of preferred markets. It’s held behind closed doors in what appears to be a smoke filled room.
PSS I know the arrests had to do with 2 types of crimes involving organized crime. I care about the inside information. I don’t give a great God about a rigged poker game in the basement of mafia/mob/wannabe/crime family types. If you are stupid enough to go to a poker game in a basement or house of a bunch of randoms, you deserve to lose all your money.