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Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and dozens of others were hit with federal charges Thursday as part of a sweeping investigation into illegal sports gambling and poker rigging schemes allegedly backed by the Mafia.
The extraordinary federal takedown led to the arrests of more than 30 people across 11 states on charges including wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery and illegal gambling, FBI Director Kash Patel announced at a news conference.
“The fraud is mind-blogging,” Patel told reporters, referring to the alleged schemes as a “criminal enterprise that envelops both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra.”
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U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr., said the suspects allegedly used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from secretly rigged underground poker games.
These games were backed by the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families, Nocella said.
Rozier and Billups, along with former NBA player Damon Jones, who played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, was among those arrested. Tommy Gelardo was also arrested this morning, an FBI spokesperson said. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said those former players were allegedly involved in a scheme involving fraudulent NBA bets that was dubbed “Operation Nothing But Net.”
Rozier, who joined the Heat in 2024 from the Charlotte Hornets, was arrested Thursday morning in Orlando, Florida. He is expected to appear in Orlando federal court on Thursday afternoon.
It is not immediately clear where Billups was arrested, but he is set to be arraigned later today in Portland, where he resides, officials with the Eastern District of New York said in a press conference. The Trail Blazers played in Portland, Oregon, last night.
Members and associates of organized crime groups are also among the couple dozen people expected to face criminal charges in two separate illegal gambling-related cases.
Rozier, an Ohio native and 10-year NBA veteran, was picked 16th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2015 NBA draft after playing college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals.
“A long time ago, we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication,” Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, said in a statement to NBC News. “They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel.”
Trusty added, “It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self-surrender, they opted for a photo-op.”
“They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case,” he added. “They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA, and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”
Billups’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Miami Heat, the Trail Blazers and the NBA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Billups has coached since 2021, following a widely lauded 17-season playing career that culminated in the sport’s highest honor: enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
A high school and collegiate star out of Colorado, Billups, 49, entered the NBA in 1997 as the third overall draft pick. By 2014, his clutch baskets and on-court leadership were vital to Detroit’s NBA championship over the Lakers. The title run earned him the nickname “Mr. Big Shot” and the honor of being named the NBA Finals MVP, and it transformed his career. Between 2006 and 2010, Billups was voted an All-Star five times.
After retiring in 2014, Billups worked as an NBA analyst for ESPN. After one season as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers, he was hired by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021.
Law enforcement’s interest in Billups comes four months after another NBA star, Gilbert Arenas, was arrested and indicted after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California alleged he was involved in helping operate illegal, high-stakes poker games out of a Los Angeles-area home that Arenas owned.
Investigations into gambling have extended to active NBA players in recent seasons, as well. Jontay Porter pleaded guilty in federal court and was banned by the NBA for life in 2024 for violating the league’s sports gambling rules, with the league alleging that the Toronto Raptors forward had bet on NBA games and disclosed confidential information about his own participation to bettors. He is set to be sentenced in December.
Jonathan Dienst is chief justice contributor for NBC News and chief investigative reporter for WNBC-TV in New York.
Tom Winter is NBC’s National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Correspondent.
Andrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital.
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