NBA Coach and Player arrested in federal sports betting investigations. What’s next for the league?
For decades, professional sports leagues created firewalls to protect the integrity of their games from the corrosive nature of gambling. Starting several years ago, the leagues started linking arms with bettors and gambling platforms. especially on line. The money began rolling in to their coffers, but at what cost?
The NBA may be discovering it this morning. Feds arrested the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and the Miami Heat’s point guard in unrelated investigations into gambling and corruption. And it may not end with these two, either:
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups have been arrested in connection with a federal investigation into sports betting, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The exact charge or charges they face were not immediately known. Two people spoke to the AP about Rozier on condition of anonymity because they couldn’t discuss details of the investigation publicly. One of these people also told the AP of Billups’ arrest. .
The case was brought by the same U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.
