Right now, the NBA is looking to navigate another high-profile development that has the basketball and non-basketball world watching.
Fallout is continuing since the arrests of Portland Trail Blazers’ Head Coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were first announced last week. The press conference by the FBI and other officials said the indictments stem from a federal investigation into an illegal sports gambling and poker scheme. Congress is now getting involved, and the spotlight is on Commissioner Adam Silver to see what he does next.
The Lead sent out the Bat Signal to some of the staff to get their thoughts on this scandal, just how “damaging” this is for the NBA, and where the league can (or in some cases, should) go from here:
What was your initial reaction to the gambling allegations and arrests tied to the NBA?
Tanner Plooster: I was surprised, but also not shocked. I feel like it happens a lot more than we think. My surprised reaction lies in the fact of who was involved with the illegal poker game activities. Never in a million years would I think Chauncey Billups would resort to this type of behavior.
Mac Pham: Shocker. There’s definitely a few players and coaches out there who are gambling; they just haven’t been caught yet. I felt like this had been swept under the rug and that all parties involved could have been exposed much sooner.
Michael J: I thought that it was Pablo Torre exposing some more truth, but it turns out that this thing has been ongoing longer than we’ve known. I remember listening to a podcast, maybe someone visiting Bill Simmons, or Zach Lowe before he left ESPN, and they mentioned that eventually sports and betting would get out of hand. A horde of stories would eventually surface. I guess that time is now, cause here we are.
Dominic Chiappone: Not surprised this became a story… this was bound to happen. That said, I was surprised a current head coach was named in this indictment. It happening not even one full week into the news season is probably the biggest shock of them all.
Deshaun Clayborne: The Terry Rozier news was not that surprising because I always felt it was only a matter of time before players got caught up with under prop bets, but the Chauncey Billups/Damon Jones news was stunning. For an NBA head coach to get caught up in not just the fixing of games, but also a multi-year rigged poker operation tied to the mafia was something that I would have never expected to happen.
Manas Sharma: I was unsurprised. Scandals like these have been bubbling to the surface since the 2018 Supreme Court decision that allowed states to legalize sports gambling. They hadn’t yet affected the NBA in a significant way, though the Jontay Porter scandal in 2024 was certainly a bit of dark foreshadowing. They did, however, start to affect the NFL with the Josh Shaw scandal as early as 2019. Since then, numerous collegiate and professional leagues, including the NFL, MLB, and UFC, have been affected by scandals of this kind. It was only a matter of time before something like this would affect the NBA, which has literally partnered with companies like DraftKings and FanDuel.
The biggest loser in all of this is _______?
Tanner: I don’t know if there’s a big loser in all of this besides the obvious. Chauncey Billups and Terry Rosier are going to have to rebuild their reputations, if these allegations hold true.
Pham: Anybody that loses money betting. Flock around and find out.
Michael: The biggest loser is probably the betting and gambling platforms. Athletes will likely stop doing those things and not partake. I’m sure Charles Barkley will still carry on. The things he said the other day were simple but profound. “It’s stupidity.”
Dom: Any fan, NBA or other major professional sport, who believes this is the last time this will come up. Gambling is becoming so ingrained in the world of sports and there’s no sign that is even remotely close to not being the case years from now. It’ll be interesting to see if more of these cases eventually come up.
Manas: The NBA. How can fans place their trust in a product that they suspect might be manipulated? The reason the NBA got the record-setting $77 billion TV deal that it just signed is because of its ability to tap into a global market and draw new fans into the sport. You can’t have even a margin of a doubt that the sport might be influenced by outside factors in any way.
Deshaun: American professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) are the biggest losers because they will never have the same reputation of integrity again. Fans have already been skeptical about rigged outcomes since the sports betting ban was lifted in 2018, and as long as they are tied via sponsorships to the sports books, but they never had hard evidence that game fixing was truly going on behind the scenes. Now that they do, there will always be reasonable speculation.
Just how big of a deal is this to the NBA’s “reputation”?
Tanner: I don’t believe that it will hurt the NBA at all. Maybe the only thing that might cause discomfort within the trust of the NBA, is that you never know who someone is beyond the court.
Pham: Talk about pushing all the chips to the table. It’s an entertainment product and it’s unfortunate people are putting their life savings on games. For everyday talk among fans, the conversation should be about games as entertainment. Too much of the conversation is about gambling and the players either losing or winning somebody’s parlay.
Michael: The first thing I thought of is David Stern and the rumors from Michael Jordan retiring in the 90s. Was it gambling related and did he banish MJ for a year as punishment? According to Silver, the NBA already did their investigations and I believe they said everyone is off the hook. Maybe not Chauncey. The reputation of the NBA will stay intact. It’s basketball. These individuals made these decisions on their own.
Dom: At first, I thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I pushed back on my own initial feeling for two reasons. One, this comes after a whole stretch where the NBA news cycle was dominated by Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers and alleged claims of salary cap circumvention with Leonard’s contract. That’s two bombshell stories and the regular season is just now hitting the end of October. Second, Congress now has its eye on the league, and that’s just always going to leave a spotlight on this until there’s resolution.
Manas: Pretty huge. This is not the first time the NBA has had a major run-in with gambling (look no further than Tim Donaghy), but they were able to spin that as an isolated incident. This is now two separate cases spanning NBA head coaches and players, with names of NBA legends like Chauncey Billups, Paul Pierce, and others also potentially involved. Adam Silver is going to testify very soon before Congress, which is never a good thing. This scandal is going to do irreparable damage to a growing fanbase that is constantly looking for reasons to call the sport rigged as it stands.
Deshaun: This is a much bigger deal than people realize. Not only was this going on, but the NBA was made aware of the Rozier thing that day, did an investigation, and cleared him to play for two more years before the feds indicted him. From now on, the process of NBA investigations are going to be questioned, and fans now know that players can sort of get one over on the league. They’re clearly not always aware of when attempts of cheating is taking place, and when they are, they now have a history of mishandling them.
Going forward, what step(s) do you think the NBA could, should or need to take from here?
Tanner: I heard this from Danny Perkins of Fox Sports, and I kind of agree with it. Eliminate the possibility of winning on the unders on parlays. That way, there is no chance of this happening again, but you can still bet.
Pham: Simple. Caught gambling = NBA ban.
Michael: I didn’t like when the NBA involved itself in gambling in the first place. I knew it would send things into a spiral. It’s bad enough that when referees make certain calls, some people will think of Tim Donaghy.
Dom: Agree with Mac here. In the immediate, strict punishment for any current and future violators. Silver and the league needs to put its foot down now and show it’s being proactive if/when future similar situations come up. In the long-term, codify whatever regulations or rules during the NBA’s next CBA negotiations with players.
Manas: It is a real red flag how much problems gambling has caused in major sports leagues since the Supreme Court’s decision in 2018. While I absolutely agree with all of my collaborators that players exhibiting illegal gambling behavior need to be banned permanently from the NBA, it shouldn’t stop just there. Major sports leagues have to reevaluate their strong partnerships with these sports gambling companies. By allowing these partnerships, you are normalizing gambling behavior not just to your fans, but to your players and coaches. It’s time for the NBA to really reflect on whether, in the long term, these partnerships are going to do more harm than good.
Deshaun: There are two options that I believe could be beneficial for stopping things like this from happening, and both should be implemented. The first is getting rid of “under” player prop bets and maybe even under bets altogether if the issues spiral out of control. The other is fixing the “soft spot” in the injury reporting timeline that Brian Windhorst alluded to on ESPN. As we all know at this point, there sometimes is a gap from when teams initially know about the status of players versus when they actually report it. Teams are required to report statuses right when they find out, but have been historically reluctant to do so immediately due to strategy reasons. The sentiment it derives from is fair, however, this is harmful in today’s landscape due to gambling and it’s unfortunately a practice that is growing outdated. There needs to be much stricter enforcement of these rules and harsher punishment for breaking them to protect the integrity of the game.
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