NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday that he was “deeply disturbed” about allegations of criminal gambling fraud that resulted in the indictments of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat star Terry Rozier a day earlier.
“There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition,” Silver said in a halftime interview during Friday’s Boston Celtics-New York Knicks game. “And so I had a pit in my stomach, it was very upsetting.”
The federal indictments announced Thursday alleged two schemes of fraud, one involving cheating at illegal poker games and another that involved NBA games and online sports betting.
In the NBA fraud, Rozier and five others are accused of exploiting confidential information about players and teams so that others could make bets — which FBI Director Kash Patel likened to insider trading.
In one instance, Rozier allegedly tipped off a friend about plans to prematurely leave a game in 2023, and then bets were placed with that nonpublic knowledge.
Billups is accused in the alleged poker scheme. Prosecutors said he was a “Face Card,” a high-profile figure used to attract gamblers, in rigged games.
Lawyers for Billups and Rozier have denied the allegation and said the men will fight the charges.
The indictments have cast a spotlight on online sports betting that is now legal in many states — although those sportsbooks have been accused of no wrongdoing, and U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said the sportsbooks were victims.
Rozier had been investigated by the league in 2023 involving betting.
Silver said Friday that league investigation was prompted after legal sportsbooks picked up unusual behavior around a game in March of 2023.
Ultimately, that league investigation found there was insufficient evidence to move forward, Silver said.
“While there was that aberrational betting, we frankly couldn’t find anything,” Silver said. “Terry at the time cooperated, he gave the league office his phone, he sat down for an interview.”
Silver said the NBA has been cooperating with law enforcement.
“The federal government has subpoena power, it can threaten to put people in jail, it can do all kinds of things that a league office can’t do. So we’ve been working with them since then,” Silver said.
In all, 34 people were indicted in the two cases. The poker game scheme involves 31 people being indicted, and six are indicted in the NBA information scheme. But three charged in the NBA scheme are also charged in the poker case.
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