The arrests of a prominent coach and player on Thursday were depressing but it is hard to have sympathy with a league that has embraced gambling
T
he NBA scoreboard has turned into a stock ticker. Crowd chants, but half of them are watching their parlays instead of the play. Somewhere a coach calls timeout; somewhere else a bookmaker grins. This was always coming. The NBA invited gambling to the game when it signed lucrative sponsorship deals and paved the way for odds and offers to be splashed over our TV screens during games. So when the FBI finally showed up on Thursday, they were simply collecting the rent.
Portland head coach Chauncey Billups, whose playing career ended with his induction in the hall of fame, and Miami guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday in connection with an FBI investigation into allegations of illegal gambling and rigged poker games. Former player and assistant coach Damon Jones, who allegedly provided “inside information” about NBA games to bettors, was also taken into custody.
The FBI says Rozier told people close to him that he would leave a 2023 Hornets game early in a move that would help those in the know to haul in huge betting wins (the player’s lawyer says prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing”).
