NEW YORK — On Thursday, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, ex-Boston Celtics and current Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former player and Cleveland Cavaliers coach Damon Jones were arrested and indicted as part of a years-long federal investigation centered on sports betting and illegal poker games.
Rozier was in Boston for the first four years of his career after being drafted by the Celtics in 2015. Billups and Jones both spent small stints in green as well.
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum both played with Rozier during his time with the Celtics, and Anfernee Simons played under Billups in Portland for four seasons.
“It hit me pretty tough for sure,” Simons said at Celtics shootaround in New York on Friday afternoon. “Just in shock. Obviously, I built a great relationship with Chauncey. Speaking, even after the trade, he's checking in on me, I'm checking in on him. And so, we have a great relationship.
“And I think, like I said before, it's an unfortunate situation for him to be in, especially him and his family. All the media attention is coming in, the scrutiny. It's just an unfortunate situation.”
“I know some of those guys personally,” said Brown. “Obviously, Terry played here. It's not conducive to his character, but we'll get to the bottom of it as a union and figure out what the next steps forward are.”
Brown, a Vice President of the NBA Players Association, noted that the union will likely conduct their own investigation.
“They have a crisis management team, and they also have investigative people on our side that get to the bottom of whatever the situation is and kind of go from there,” Brown said. “Obviously, if those guys are innocent, it's not a great look for them publicly and media-wise. So, we got to make sure, if they are, that they're exonerated and their images are cleaned up. But I think right now, just kind of getting all the information, getting to the bottom of it, is the most important thing.”
Sports betting is a huge problem - but it's not going anywhere
The charges regarding Rozier concern his participation in a sports betting scheme. He allegedly provided insider information to gamblers, which was then used to bet on at least seven games from March 2023 to March 2024, during Rozier’s time with the Charlotte Hornets and Heat.
As for Billups, the primary charges he’s been dealt surround his alleged involvement in a string of illegal poker games with ties to the Mafia. Billups was supposedly used as a celebrity “face-card” to lure in big-money betters, who were then scammed during the games using technology.
Dave McMenamin of ESPN detailed the full list of accusations in a recent article.
The four Mafia families involved would ensure the players paid what was due, and in return, Billups received payment for his assistance.
Though Billups was not directly named in the sports betting side of the indictment, a person matching his description reportedly revealed nonpublic information that the Blazers would be tanking during a March 24, 2023, game vs. the Chicago Bulls.
Simons was one of the four starters who were eventually listed as out for the game. Portland lost by 28 points.
“We get told to play,” Simons said when asked if he had any idea that the Blazers were going to intentionally tank. “We're not in charge of the minutes, you know what I mean? Just play. So, you just play until you come out in the game, or don't play. It was really that simple. I don't think I was told anything in general.”
The NBA placed Rozier and Billups on immediate leave when the arrests were made. Tiago Splitter will serve as the Blazers’ interim head coach.
Simons reached out to his former teammate, Damian Lillard, who just rejoined the Blazers this summer, when the news broke.
“A little bit,” Simons said when asked if he reached out to his friends in Portland. “I texted Dame when the stuff happened. I just asked if everybody was all right. It's tough. You play one game, and the coach is not there no more. You went through training, you went through all this stuff, and he was the coach, and now he's not anymore. And so, that could be tough on players. Just dealing with that at the beginning of the season. That's definitely a tough situation to be in.
“You just kind of, I'll gradually check on everybody, see how they're doing about the situation, and see how they handle it. But I think they're a pretty resilient team, and they'll get through it regardless.”
Sports gambling has become ingrained in all major sports leagues across the US. On one of ESPN’s on-air segments discussing the arrests of Billups, Rozier, and Jones, an ESPN Bet ticker flashed on the bottom of the screen. The production crew seemingly removed it in haste as the show was proceeding live.
Ads for DraftKings, FanDuel, ESPN Bet, and more are constantly mentioned on broadcasts, and TD Garden even has DraftKings logos adorning the baselines of the court.
There is no escaping it anymore. It’s simply a part of the sport.
“Me personally, I think, that whole world was introduced a couple of years ago, and I don't think they took players into consideration, especially with the energy and behavior that goes around gambling, and how that directly correlates with players,” Brown said.
“We don't benefit from any of the profits or anything like that, but we got to deal with a lot of the extra negativity and scrutiny behind all the gambling stuff. And then on top of that, it creates more integrity issues, etc. So, I'm not sure what the answer is going forward, but [it's] definitely something that people got to spend more time having conversations about.”
Instead of ‘Let’s Go Celtics’ signs, fans will bring posters that read, ‘I need 250 points to hit the over!’ Instead of ‘I love you, Jaylen Brown!’ it’s ‘Jaylen, score 30 for my parlay!’
And once money is involved, emotions run rampant. Fans scream at the bench about their bets, rather than the game itself.
Betting has been around for a long time, but with how normalized it's become, these issues are only becoming more and more relevant.
“Yeah, it gets annoying for sure,” said Simons. “But that's the reality we got to live in right now. And, like I said before, sports betting, it's probably only going to go up from here. So, that's just a thing we got to live with.
“Obviously, like I said, we human. It gets annoying. A lot of players feel like it's annoying, I'm pretty sure. And so, we just got to focus on the game and focus on what we need to do to go out there and win.”
With sports betting introduced into everyday life in the NBA, players are forced to face the inherent risks that come with it.
Fans screaming at them from the stands is one thing, but now, everyday conversations are a hazard.
“Obviously, gambling in the sports world is becoming a bigger thing. You just got to make sure the players are aware of all the risk of simple conversations with different people about the game or confidential information,” said Simons. “And so, you just got to be careful in those conversations.
“That's what they tell us, because it could be a tricky situation when you feel like you're having a casual conversation with a friend or mutual friend, and they're trying to get information out of you. So, it's a hard situation to be in. We just got to be smart in that situation and know, if it's not public, don't say it.”
“I think a lot more could have been done to help players or prepare players,” Brown said. “But even in the aftermath, I don't think little care or attention to detail goes into it. They're like, you make X amount of money or X, Y, and Z, you should be able to deal with all the extra negativity, the people approaching you about parlays. It creates a negative discourse around the game and players.
“When people have money involved, obviously, it's a part of it. But definitely, some of the experiences, the fan engagement, the fan interactions that we've had over the years, where fans feel like they can come on the court or, and touch players, and things like that, it's to leading to situations that we can avoid if more conversations were had right now.”
Sports betting isn’t going anywhere. And given how much money various books have invested into the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and other leagues, it’s inevitably going to be part of the viewing experience for millions of fans around the world.
It’s unavoidable.
And unfortunately, for some, so is the danger involved.
“It don't affect me. I don't think so,” Brown said. “I just come out. I don't pay attention to none of that stuff.
“People bet parlays— Don't bet on me. I'll tell you that right now. But I don't know how it affects everybody else. I guess that's a personal question.”