NBAs

The NCAA picked a hell of a week to get into the gambling business, didn’t it?

Within 24 hours of approving a rule change that will allow student athletes and athletic department staff to bet only on professional sports, the FBI arrested more than 30 people in connection with a major sports gambling and betting scheme. The level of sophistication alleged in one 22-page indictment reads like an “Ocean’s Eleven” script with four New York Mafia families, a current NBA player and a head coach all allegedly involved.

For Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, the news and arrests are a public relations nightmare.

But for the NCAA, it’s a warning.

Since a 2018 Supreme Court ruling paved the way for sports betting, more than 35 states have legalized it, so I understand why the industry no longer feels dirty. But the governing body for more than half a million young athletes must remember nothing will ever sanitize that industry.

A century ago, the Black Sox scandal nearly destroyed baseball in America. Fast forward a hundred years and we find out 16 professional tennis players — including a U.S. Open champion — were fixing matches for gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy. In between, Pete “Charlie Hustle” Rose received a lifetime ban for betting on baseball games as a manager and Tim Donaghy, an NBA referee, is busted for betting on games. Last year, former NBA player Jontay Porter was found to have placed several bets on games using another person’s account. We call him “former” because the league banned him for life.

So, if NCAA officials believe it is too cumbersome to enforce its current gambling ban (it is investigating multiple violations across several schools), imagine what life inside the organization would be like without some sort of deterrent.

In fact, no imagination is required. Just read the indictment filed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The FBI alleges the gambling scheme began in 2019, operated across 11 states and involved crime families with origins that date back more than a century.

According to documents, hidden cameras, programmable card shuffling machines and X-ray tables were among the pieces of technology used to steal tens of millions from victims during rigged poker games. Those allegedly involved in the scheme included Chauncey Billups — a Hall of Fame player and head coach of the Portland Trailblazers. Authorities said Billups, who led the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 championship, used his celebrity to lure in victims. In addition, the FBI said Damon Jones, a former player and assistant coach for the Lakers, shared inside information about the health of LeBron James with betters back in 2023. Terry Rozier, an active NBA player on a $100-million contract, was also arrested.

Now consider this: There are roughly 40,000 young men and women who play NCAA basketball and about 8,000 head and assistant coaches leading teams. How confident are you that March Madness won’t take on a different meaning if coaches and players are allowed to bet on games and find themselves underwater? A recent UC San Diego study found internet searches seeking help with gambling addiction increased 23% between 2018 and June 2024.

And while it’s true, the new rule maintains a ban against student athletes and coaches betting on college sports — so there are some guardrails against fixing games — but tilting outcomes is only one possible harm from gambling. The International Tennis Federation found that angry gamblers accounted for 40% of social media attacks aimed at players, with several threats credible enough to be submitted to the FBI. And there is already evidence that college students who aren’t athletes are using student loan money to place bets, and a 2023 NCAA survey found that 14% of U.S. 18- to 22-year-olds bet at least a few times a week.

Another 16% use a bookie.

I repeat: a bookie.

This just feels like a tragedy we can all see coming.

And we’re to believe the NCAA will be equipped to protect student athletes from predators when the Mafia is said to be using professional athletes and X-ray machines to steal from card players who are supposed to know better? The decision-making process for the human brain isn’t fully developed until a person is 25, and the NCAA just voted to let 18-year-olds with “name, image, likeness” money go in the deep water with sharks.

Given what just unfolded in the NBA this week the responsible move for the NCAA would be to pause the rule change — which is to take effect Nov. 1 — and reassess the risks. It’s one thing for sports gambling to cost a pro athlete to lose his career. It would be worse to see addiction or debt obligations steal a young person’s future before it begins.

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NEW YORK — Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are among more than 30 people charged in connection with schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by 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 that were backed by Mafia families, authorities said.

The indictments are related to two major cases, one involving sports betting and the second involving rigged poker games, U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said at a news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel. In the first case, six defendants are accused of participating in an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams, Nocella said. He called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”

The second case involves 31 defendants in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games, Nocella said. The defendants include former professional athletes accused of using technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games in the New York area that were backed by Mafia families, he said.

In the sports betting scheme, players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told other he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing others to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, Tisch said.

The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators including a Florida resident who was an NBA player and an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier.

Rozier and other defendants “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.

The NBA had no immediate comment. The league has investigated Rozier previously and still is looking into the actions of former Detroit player Malik Beasley, one of the sources told the AP.

Rozier was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic in Orlando, Florida, in the season opener for both teams on Wednesday evening, though he did not play in the game. He was taken into custody in Orlando early Thursday morning. The team didn’t immediately comment on the arrest.

A message was left with Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, on Thursday. Trusty previously told ESPN that Rozier was told that an initial investigation determined he did nothing wrong after he met with NBA and FBI officials in 2023, the sports network reported.

A message seeking comment was left with Billups on Thursday morning.

The case was brought by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.

Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA point guard led the Detroit Pistons to their third league title in 2004 as NBA Finals MVP. Boston drafted the former Colorado star with the No. 3 pick overall in 1997. The player known as Mr. Big Shot also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Denver Nuggets.

The 49-year-old Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota.

A game involving Rozier that has been in question was played on March 23, 2023, a matchup between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game — and not only did not return that night, citing a foot issue, but did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was not in playoff contention, so it did not seem particularly unusual that Rozier was shut down for the season’s final games.

In that March 23 game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in that opening period — a productive quarter but well below his usual total output for a full game.

Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.

A prop is a type of wager that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish over or under a certain total of points, rebounds, assists and more.

Richer, Reynolds and Marcelo write for the Associated Press. Durkin Richer reported from Washington, and Reynolds reported from Miami. Associated Press reporters David Collins in Hartford, Conn., and Larry Lage in Detroit contributed.