Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested on Thursday as part of two separate illegal gambling-related cases, the FBI confirmed.
Billups, Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were among over 30 individuals arrested in connection with the FBI’s probe. Four other individuals, Eric Earnest, Marves Fairley, Shane Hennen and Deniro Laster were named in the Department of Justice’s indictment.
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Billups and Rozier — the two individuals currently active in the NBA — were placed on immediate leave by the league Thursday. The Trail Blazers confirmed Billups was placed on leave and named Thiago Splitter as the team’s interim coach. The Trail Blazers said they would fully cooperate with the FBI’s investigation.
That investigation took years and spanned 11 states, FBI director Kash Patel said Thursday.
Billups and Jones were charged after allegedly being involved with an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia.
The individuals allegedly involved in running the illegal poker games — some of which include members of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families — are accused of rigging contests in their favor. Individuals reportedly used secret cameras, contacts that could read marked cards and X-ray tables, among other methods, to cheat other players out of millions.
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Billups’ presence at those games was meant to legitimize them and make “victims believe that they were sitting at a fair table,” New York City police commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday. Billups was reportedly aware of the scam, per U.S. Attorney Joe Nocella.
Billups, 49, spent 17 seasons in the NBA as a player. The No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft, Billups spent eight of those seasons with the Detroit Pistons, where he helped lead the team to a championship in 2004. He was a five-time All-Star, made the All-NBA team three times and was a member of the NBA All-Defensive team twice. Billups was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
Following the end of his playing career, Billups went into coaching. He was hired by the Trail Blazers ahead of the 2021-22 NBA season and has compiled a 177-212 record in five seasons with the team.
One of those defeats came Wednesday night, as Billups led the Trail Blazers to a 118-114 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the team’s 2025-26 season opener.
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Billups was arraigned in Portland on Thursday and was released on condition he surrender his passport and limit his travel to Oregon and Colorado before he has to appear on Nov. 24 at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York. Billups did not comment to reporters after leaving the courthouse.
Jones was also reportedly involved in the illegal poker game scheme. Jones, an 11-year NBA veteran, played for 10 teams during his career. After retiring in 2012, Jones spent time as an assistant coach with the Cavaliers.
Terry Rozier among those arrested in sports betting probe
Rozier, 31, had been under investigation for his actions during a March 23, 2023, NBA game, when he was still a member of the Charlotte Hornets. Prior to the game against the New Orleans Pelicans that season, a bettor placed nearly $14,000 on unders involving Rozier’s statistics. Rozier left the game after just nine minutes due to a foot injury, causing his under bets to win, according to the indictment.
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Federal officials allege Rozier had told one of his friends, Deniro Laster, he would pull himself from the game early. Laster, also a defendant in the case, is alleged to have sold the information to bettors for about $100,000.
Despite the investigation looming over him, Rozier, an 11-year NBA veteran, was preparing to play for the Heat during the 2025-26 NBA season. The guard battled a hamstring injury ahead of the team’s season opener Wednesday, but was reportedly available to play in the contest. He did not make an appearance in the team’s 125-121 loss to the Orlando Magic.
Rozier also made his initial court appearance on Thursday and was released on bond after being arraigned.
In September, the Hornets canceled a sports betting theme night promotion that was supposed to take place when Rozier and the Heat came to town in March.
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Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, released a statement to CNN saying his client “looks forward to winning this fight.”
Trusty also criticized the way the FBI handled Thursday’s arrest.
“It is unfortunate that instead of allowing [Rozier] to self surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case. They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing,” Trusty’s statement continued.
The NBPA issued a statement that echoed that sentiment. The organization stressed that “the integrity of the game is paramount,” but also called out the FBI for using Rozier and Billups’ names as a way to draw more attention to the arrests.
“The integrity of the game is paramount to NBA players, but so is the presumption of innocence, and both are hindered when player popularity is misused to gain attention. We will ensure our members are protected and afforded their due process rights through this process.”
In addition to reportedly being involved in the illegal poker games, Jones was also accused of providing inside information about NBA games — including the injury status of LeBron James — to co-defendants who used that information to place sports bets.
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While Billups was not named or mentioned in the Rozier indictment, the Trail Blazers coach matches the description of a person referred to as Co-Conspirator 8 in that indictment. Co-Conspirator 8 allegedly provided inside information to Earnest suggesting the Trail Blazers would attempt to intentionally lose a late-season game against the Chicago Bulls in 2023 in order to receive a better draft pick.
The probe into Rozier was the same one one that resulted in Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter being banned from the NBA for life, prosecutors said Thursday. Porter was investigated after unusual betting activity came in on his unders for two games. Porter left one of those contests with an injury and another with an illness, causing a number of those unders to hit.
An NBA investigation determined Porter leaked “confidential information to sports bettors,” limited his playing time in certain games for betting purposes and bet on NBA games, leading to his lifetime ban.
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Former Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley, who was under investigation due to his alleged involvement in a federal gambling probe, was not part of the arrests. While the investigation into Beasley was not closed, the NBA investigation into Beasley allegedly “didn’t find anything,” per journalist Pablo Torre. Beasley reportedly voluntarily handed over his phone to NBA investigators, per Torre.
The FBI and Patel held a press conference Thursday to confirm those arrests and provide more details on the allegations surrounding Billups, Jones and Rozier.
Following that press conference, the NBA announced Billups and Rozier would be placed on immediate leave. The NBA said it would cooperate with investigators and takes the allegations seriously.