Betting scandal hits the NBA

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones were arrested on Thursday for alleged involvement in sprawling gambling conspiracies that rocked the NBA

The FBI said Rozier and other co-conspirators — some named and some not — provided inside information to sports bettors, including information on players who had no idea the valuable intelligence was being passed on.

Key games alleged to feature in the scheme include:

Charlotte Hornets at New Orleans Pelicans, March 23, 2023

Authorities allege Rozier, Charlotte’s starting point guard, advised a co-conspirator that he planned to leave the game with an injury. Bettors then placed more than $200,000 in bets based on predictions of Rozier’s statistics for the game.

Rozier exited with a supposed foot injury after nine minutes, and the bets paid off, “generating tens of thousands of dollars in profits,” prosecutors said, alleging that one defendant and Rozier later met at the player’s house to count the winnings.

Chicago Bulls at Portland Trail Blazers, March 24, 2023

The slumping Trail Blazers sat starters Damian Lillard, Jusuf Nurkic, Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons in a 124-96 loss to the Bulls.

Lillard had been listed as “probable” on the early injury report with calf tightness, Nurkic was listed as “questionable” and both Grant and Simons were listed as “out.”

The indictment alleges that defendant Eric Earnest was told by an unnamed “co-conspirator 8” that the Blazers were “tanking” in a bid to improve their position in the following NBA draft and key Blazers players would be sidelined. Using that information before it became available to the public or to betting companies, bettors placed more than $100,000 in wagers against the Trail Blazers that “yielded major winnings.”

The unnamed “co-conspirator 8” was described in the indictment as an NBA player from approximately 1997 through 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021. That timeline matches Billups’s resume, although his arrest on Thursday was in connection with a separate scheme involving alleged mafia-backed, rigged poker games.

Milwaukee Bucks at Los Angeles Lakers, February 9, 2023

The Bucks beat the Lakers 115-106 with Lakers superstar LeBron James sidelined by an ankle injury that would see him miss two more games.

The indictment alleges that before news of James’s injury was official, Jones, then an “unofficial assistant coach” with the Lakers, texted a co-conspirator, “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! (Player 3) is out tonight.”