For an NBA head coach to get involved in gambling is already shocking in itself but the details of Chauncey Billups’ Thursday arrest just opened the pandora’s box. The Portland Trailblazers was charged for participation in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games in different areas in the United States.
The NBA immediately put Billups, as well as Terry Rozier who is involved in a different but related case, on leave.
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the league said in a statement.
FBI director Kash Patel describe these cases “mind boggling”.
“The fraud is mind boggling,” he said.
“We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”
Billups has been the Blazers’ coach since 2021. He had a solid NBA career as a player, winning one Finals MVP and one championship with the Detroit Pistons, and making to the All-Star Game for five straight years.
Chauncey Billups’ mafia involvement
Roziers’ case is virtually just him and small players but Billups’ is a more complicated, one that can be compared to a heist movie.
According to reports, he is part of a syndicate to rig poker games backed, with solid backing from mafia families. The Associated Press wrote that the mafia has a high-tech equipment that shows the cards to the cheater:
Advanced technology with a shuffling machine could determine the exact order of cards after a shuffle, and who was holding what once they were dealt. That information is then transmitted wirelessly to someone off-site, who sends the identity of the player with the winning hand to the phone of a player at the table, known as “the quarterback.
How was Billups involved in all these? With his profile, he was allegedly used as the face card to lure big time players. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said millions have been taken from the victims who played in the said games.
Billups’ camp said they are fighting the case and the are insisting on the innocence of the Blazers coach.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom,” his attorney, Chris Heywood, said in a statement released shortly after his charge.
“He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.
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