More than 30 people, including NBA head coach Chauncey Billups and player Terry Rozier, have been arrested as part of federal investigations into gambling and “sports rigging” operations linked to multiple major crime families, law enforcement leaders said Thursday.
“We are here in New York to announce a historic arrest across a wide, sweeping criminal enterprise that envelops both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Director Kash Patel said at a news conference in Brooklyn.
Billups, head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, Rozier of the Miami Heat, and former NBA player Damon Jones were “taken into custody today,” Patel said.
Billups, a former player for the Detroit Pistons who spent 17 years in the NBA, was arrested in Portland. A five-time All-Star, Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
Rozier was arrested in Orlando, Florida.
Rozier, a 10-year NBA veteran, reportedly had been eyed for months over suspicious sports betting activity related to his play.
Billups was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player in 2004 when the Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the league’s finals.
Jones, 49, played for 10 teams, including three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, over a decade-plus NBA career.
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