On Oct. 23, Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the Portland Trail Blazers’ Head Coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier had been arrested in relation to illegal gambling and sports betting.
Rozier — who had been deemed not guilty after a prior investigation for illegal sports betting last year — will now be absent from his team after the FBI concluded he took part in prop bets.
Billups’ case is separate, having been accused of maintaining ties to an illegal poker ring in association with the mafia. Former Cleveland Cavaliers player Damon Jones was also arrested. The NBA has announced that both Billups and Rozier will not be paid as they are on a leave of absence for the foreseeable future.
Since the lifetime ban of former NBA player Jontay Porter in 2024, the NBA has seen a rise in cases of illegal betting. For Rozier, fans with a keen eye have been suspicious of potential prop betting after numerous games where it looked as though he was purposely playing poorly. The Heat guard was a 23-point-per-game scorer not all that long ago. Now, only in his early 30s, Rozier was playing his sloppiest brand of basketball out of nowhere. The FBI had been investigating Rozier since 2023, after a particular game where it was assumed that he had placed illegal bets.
According to FBI Director Kash Patel, Rozier had information from people inside the NBA, with players substituting themselves in and out of games to sway the outcome. Since the legalization of online sports betting in the U.S., the risk of user-player prop betting seemed almost inevitable.
From a non-legal perspective, the absence of Rozier from the Heat’s lineup seems to be working out fine. Last season, the Heat were swept by the Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, in part due to Rozier’s sharp decline on the court. He averaged his worst numbers since his early years in Boston, including career lows in almost all major statistical categories. Assuming Rozier won’t be returning to the Heat’s lineup this season, his absence leaves more room for Tyler Herro and Davion Mitchell to play point guard minutes. Mitchell, who’s had an up-and-down career to this point, has carved out a role as the Heat’s main facilitator, averaging a career high of 8.3 assists per game. When Herro returns from his ankle injury, Miami should have its guard rotation full for the remainder of the season, leaving Rozier with no real role on the team.
For a player with so much offensive upside, it will be interesting to see if he ever makes a return to the NBA or if he becomes another player who has their career cut short from off the court issues.
As for Billups, he was arrested in Oregon following his involvement in illegal gambling related to the mafia family. According to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr., “Millions of dollars were reportedly stolen from poker players across the New York region.”
Billups and Rozier were both released from court upon their first hearings; however, both men will attend follow-up hearings, with Billups attending later in November and Rozier in December. If the money laundering and wire fraud conspiracies are both found to be true, sentences of up to 20 years in prison could be issued accordingly.
Tiago Splitter will take over as interim Head Coach for the Trail Blazers until a new full-time coach is appointed. Billups had a polarizing stint as Portland’s head coach, including a rocky relationship with franchise legend and current guard, Damian Lillard. Things seemed to be fine between the two as Lillard would rejoin the Blazers in the summer after a short stint with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Billups is a Hall of Famer, former NBA champion and Finals M.V.P. Now with serious criminal charges pressed against him, there’s no telling how he will be remembered by the NBA world.