Emergency post! I woke up to several texts from friends and family about Chauncey Billups and was immediately distracted from doing anything productive during my typical morning routine. Can the NBA go 24 hours without drama? Apparently not. I couldn’t not write a post about my feelings as a Portland Trail Blazers fan. Apologies if there are any typos or grammatical errors; I’m currently writing this at midnight.
In case you missed it, Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier, and Damon Jones were arrested by the FBI for allegations involving illegal gambling with the mafia and providing information/manipulating bets on NBA games. I usually try to withhold judgement until proven guilty (see the current Malik Beasley situation), but this feels pretty damning.
Billups is probably the highest profile arrest for sports gambling since Tim Donaghy, certainly since it was widely legalized. He’s not only a Hall of Fame basketball player, but also a coach who can easily influence basketball games based on his personnel decisions, similar to a referee. Chauncey even had a Freudian slip in his post-game press conference (start at 5:11). You can’t write a better script than this.
What We Know
The details are still murky, and new information is coming to light every hour, but the gist of it is that the FBI arrested Billups yesterday morning, hours after the Blazers’ season-opening game.
The FBI has been investigating an illegal gambling and sports rigging operation that spans 11 states. In total, over 30 people have been arrested, including 13 members of La Cosa Nostra (Italian mafia).
Billups is being accused of being involved in a rigged poker scheme where he was the set-up guy, along with other former famous athletes, to lure rich people to participate and be scammed. It is alleged that he received a kickback for his efforts.
The rigged poker games included altered shuffling machines, poker chip trays that read cards through hidden cameras, contact lenses and glasses that could read marked cards, and even an X-ray poker table that could read cards that were face down.
Additionally, there is suspicion that Billups was involved in providing insider information for gamblers to place bets that the Blazers would lose a game in 2023. The following excerpt is from Yahoo Sports:
On March 24, 2023, the Portland Trail Blazers played the Chicago Bulls in a game that was all but irrelevant for both teams.
Prior to the game an individual identified as “Co-Conspirator 8” told one of the defendants, Eric Earnest, that “the Trail Blazers were going to be tanking to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick in the upcoming NBA draft.”
Co-Conspirator 8 informed Earnest, prior to the news becoming public, that several of the Blazers’ best players would not be playing. According to the indictment, Earnest gave the inside information to Marves Fairley, another defendant, for the purposes of betting on the game. Fairley promised to pay Earnest at least $5,000 if the bets paid off.
Fairley and another defendant, Shane Hennen, along with another individual termed “Co-Conspirator 1” who was an NBA player at the time, then placed approximately $100,000 worth of bets against the Blazers.
The Bulls won the game decisively, 124-96, as many of the Blazers’ best players, including Damian Lillard, did not play. Both Lillard and Nurkic were shut down for the season starting with the March 24 game.
A question looming over this game: Who is Co-Conspirator 8?
The indictment identifies Co-Conspirator 8 as “a resident [of] Oregon” and “an NBA player from approximately 1997 through 2014, and an NBA coach since at least 2021.”
Chauncey Billups played in the NBA for multiple teams from 1997 through 2014. He has been the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021.
My Thoughts
Remember, this isn’t the first time Chauncey has gotten into legal trouble. He was accused of rape in 1997, which caused quite an uproar from a segment of Blazers fans when he was originally hired.
If you know my Blazers fandom, you know I’ve never been much of a Billups fan. Obviously, I don’t condone crime (I don’t even think I knew about his rape allegations until he was in the running to be hired as the Blazers coach), but most of my original dislike for him was his inability to coach.
Early in his second season as the Blazers’ coach, I remember texting my brother-in-law something to the effect of, “I don’t think Chauncey can coach.” His rotations were weird, the offense was stagnant, and overall, he just seemed a little clueless.
As all the news broke yesterday morning, I joked with that same brother-in-law that maybe the Blazers’ new, incoming manager agreed with me about Billups’ coaching abilities and called in the tip to the FBI. Others on X certainly were getting in on the fun for other infamous NBA executives.
Billups’ coaching identity didn’t really form until about eight months ago, right after the All-Star break last season. That’s when the Blazers’ defense was one of the best in the league, and Portland started to win games. Ever since, the Blazers have focused all their efforts on making defense their top priority. Billups has really taken on the persona of a defense-first coach, and his reputation was starting to spread around the league. Just check out what Anthony Edwards said after the season opener (start at 2:45).
With these new developments, it feels like all the progress the Blazers have made over the last eight months is now in jeopardy. Tiago Splitter was just named as the interim head coach, but I’m of the opinion that the Blazers need to act quickly to find a new permanent head coach. Portland can’t be in limbo for a whole season unless the plan now is to tank.
However, after watching the pre-season and the opening game of the regular season, I think the team will be too good. Plus, these young players need to feel the pressure of playing in at least a few semi-important games to grow, develop, and learn how to win. The dark cloud of Billups will only be lifted if the Blazers move on quickly by hiring a new coach sooner rather than later. And hey, if Billups was manipulating games, maybe the silver lining is that the Blazers are better than we think!
Tonight, the Golden State Warriors visit the Portland Trail Blazers. Terry Stotts, the Blazers’ head coach preceding Billups, is now an assistant on the Warriors’ sideline. It certainly is funny the way this all unfolded. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sips a beer as he watches the game. IYKYK.
I know I’ve been focused on the basketball implications of all of this, but I don’t think that’s what the story is really about. It’s about the gambling problem the NBA is having, and honestly, the society that has welcomed it with open arms.
Advertisements for gambling sites are everywhere. Sports commercials, sports podcast sponsors, newsletters dedicated to it, on the bottom ESPN ticker as the Billups news broke, and the list goes on. Unless the NBA and the states take a complete U-turn on legalized sports gambling, things will only get worse.
Literally this week, the NCAA announced that it will now allow college athletes to bet on professional sports starting November 1st. We are going to have a whole generation of college athletes who will become addicted to gambling and take that behavior with them as they enter the professional ranks. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
As Zach Lowe said, “This is going to be a before and after day in the history of sports and gambling in basketball.” The choice of whether this is a slippery slope or a brick wall will come down to how these scandals are handled.
If you want to read more about the history, scandal, and impact of sports betting, check out my post from last year below.
The Game Within the Game
In 2013, two researchers examined the data to understand the prevalence of point shaving in college basketball. They looked at the point spread of all college basketball games between 1995 and 2009.
Agreed. (Past) Time to state the obvious: invite the fox (gambling) in the henhouse, and it leads to carnage.
Major and drastic changes are needed immediately, or this story will be the tip of the iceberg for sports -- the Titanic iceberg, that is.