Just when the NBA thought it had tipped off a fresh season, a federal bombshell dropped, exposing a dark underbelly of gambling and deceit among its ranks, as NBC News reports.
Less than 48 hours after the new season began on October 21, 2025, a sweeping investigation led to the arrests of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and former player Terry Rozier on October 23, shaking the league to its core with allegations of rigged poker games and insider betting.
The timing couldn’t be worse—Billups was nabbed mere hours after Portland’s season-opening loss at home, with the team’s owner and a potential buyer in the stands witnessing the aftermath of a devastating defeat.
Billups, a Hall of Famer turned coach, faces charges tied to Mafia-linked poker schemes, while Rozier is accused of insider sports betting, painting a grim picture of integrity lost.
Adding fuel to the fire, former player and coach Damon Jones is implicated in both cases, allegedly leaking injury details about stars like LeBron James and Anthony Davis before key games in 2023 and 2024, though neither player is accused of any misconduct.
Jones’ actions reportedly gave bettors an unfair edge, a betrayal of trust that stings in a league already wary of gambling’s grip on its culture.
Billups, while not directly named in Rozier’s indictment, appears to match the description of “Co-Conspirator 8,” an Oregon-based former player and current coach accused of tipping off bettors about a Trail Blazers game in March 2023.
The allegation? That the team would intentionally underperform by sidelining players with injuries, allowing others to profit from bets against Portland—a scheme that cuts at the heart of fair play.
“Who else is involved? It’s a nightmare for the league,” lamented a front office executive, capturing the paranoia now rippling through NBA circles. And frankly, in a world obsessed with woke posturing, it’s refreshing to see the focus shift to real corruption instead of manufactured outrage.
This isn’t the NBA’s first rodeo with gambling scandals—last year, Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter was banned for life after spilling confidential info to bettors, later pleading guilty to wire fraud charges.
Even the league’s own probes, like one into Rozier last season, failed to uncover rule-breaking at the time, though federal investigators clearly saw a different story, raising questions about the NBA’s ability to police itself.
FBI Director Kash Patel warned at a news conference that this is just the beginning, with Assistant Director Christopher Raia calling the indictments “just the tip of the iceberg”—a chilling reminder that more skeletons may lurk in the locker room.
Gambling has long been a shadow companion to the NBA, with card games like bourré and high-stakes poker a staple on team flights and in cities like Los Angeles and Houston, according to sources familiar with the culture.
Stories of near fistfights over card games, as shared by Lakers coach J.J. Redick on his podcast, and past incidents like Gilbert Arenas’ 2010 arrest over a gambling-related gun dispute, show how deep these habits run—hardly a surprise when players’ salaries top $59 million, fueling ever-escalating bets.
While the NBA scrambles with statements about taking these allegations seriously, one has to wonder if Commissioner Adam Silver’s admission of limited investigative resources compared to federal power means the league has been playing catch-up on a problem it should’ve crushed long ago. In an era where progressive agendas often dominate sports narratives, this scandal is a sobering call to focus on cleaning house rather than chasing cultural clout.
