An NBA star and head coach were among 34 people – 13 of them reputed mobsters – arrested early Thursday as part of sweeping FBI investigations into gambling.
Miami Heat star Terry Rozier was arrested at a hotel in Orlando, Florida. Chauncey Billups, head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers was picked up by law enforcement in Oregon.
At a 45-minute press conference in New York City, FBI director Kash Patel painted a picture of a wide-ranging scam involving the Mafia that had cost its victims millions of dollars.
"This is the insider trading saga for the NBA," Patel said.
Authorities say the schemes – one of them focused on insider sports betting and another that rigged poker games nationwide – spanned years and involved tens of millions of dollars in illicit gains from wire fraud, money laundering, extortion and gambling.
Unusual betting patterns around a 2023 game, which Rozier played with the Charlotte Hornets, had sparked the investigation. Bookmakers in multiple states reported suspicious interest in his statistics, resulting in a surge of bets on his points, rebounds and assists.
Billups' arrest is part of a separate, but related, investigation into an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia, according to ABC News. Billups was expected to make an initial court appearance later Thursday.
In that game that sparked the Rozier investigation, he scored five points, four rebounds and two assists within 10 minutes, but then left the court complaining of a foot injury, and did not return, causing outrage from online betters.
Despite this, the NBA did not find that he had violated any league rules.
“In March 2023, the NBA was alerted to unusual betting activity related to Terry Rozier’s performance in a game between Charlotte and New Orleans,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said earlier this year, though added that the league was aware of the federal investigation.
Rozier was linked to the same probe that led to former Toronto Raptors player, Jontay Porter, being banned for life from the NBA, and eventually pleading guilty to committing wire fraud in a criminal prosecution.
Prior to his coaching role at the Blazers, Billups enjoyed a storied player career, and is a five time NBA All-Star and former NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. He was inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
While the arrests stemmed from two separate indictments, a handful of defendants were charged in both cases, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said, including former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones.
Rozier's lawyer, James Trusty, said prosecutors "appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case."
With reporting from the Associated Press
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