Blazers coach Chauncey Billups arrested by FBI for illegal gambling

[Mamba81p]

As I said in Terry Rozzier thread, do not jump to conclussions, these betting agencies enforced insane legal protections against anyone who try to screw them in any way. This could be another inside information leak case, which is still illegal, but I do not think it is the same at all as fixing sports scores in illegal bets. I think some people just didn't caught up with the facts that inside information leak could get you in jail now because of these betting agencies.

Some are trying very hard to prove that the league is fixed. They have no proof, so they are jumping on anything

[Effigy]

So Billups coaching their next game or nah?

Going to use his one phone call to coach from his cell.

[Profound23]

I have been warning people for years that politics and sports will cross over more throughout the years. Hoping this doesn't get locked or some of these posts don't get deleted because this needs to be talked about without being forced to the back pages.

[Effigy]

Does this nuke Chauncey's HOF bid?

He's already in the HOF. I doubt they'll revoke it. Especially since it's not basketball related. But if he wasn't in, yeah, it might have kept him out.

[Pointgod]

After all the pedophile presidents happen to sneak out of the limelight their tech is working suddenly

I wouldn’t trust this justice department. It’s filled with incompetent nimcompoops. I want to see the actual charging documents and evidence before I make any judgments.

I have no nice things to say about this admin, but from the press conference, it sounds like this investigation has been going on for years, even back when Billups was still a player if I heard that right.

I have no doubt that it’s legit but I seriously doubt the competence of the FBI under Patel. I wouldn’t be surprised if any of this is rushed, inaccurate or Billups’ role is much smaller because they want a big name to splash across the media. Let’s wait and see though.

[Hornet Mania]

Does this nuke Chauncey's HOF bid?

If it's strictly poker....probably for the next few years it casts a pall over his induction for embarrassment reasons. (especially if he's in prison)

If it involved basketball in any way then yes, they might remove him forever.

[LockoutSeason]

The Feds are wild man. They literally waited until ONE game into the season to make an example out of everyone. They could've arrested everyone this Summer and given teams time to regroup, but they dropped this bomb basically Day One of the NBA season.

They knew what they were doing.

Read on Twitter

[Effigy]

Curious what Portland does for a coach now. I assume they'll be able to fire him with cause and not pay him. Then probably promote an assistant as interim for the year. The new owner will take over the team officially by the end of the season, so he will probably want to choose the next coach.

[-Luke-]

Does this nuke Chauncey's HOF bid?

If it's strictly poker....probably for the next few years it casts a pall over his induction for embarrassment reasons. (especially if he's in prison)

If it involved basketball in any way then yes, they might remove him forever.

He got in last year (HOF, not jail).

[BigDan245]

The Rozier story is just a player being stupid. The Billups thing is huge. Not for the NBA, but for poker games across the world.

[HMFFL]

Curious what Portland does for a coach now. I assume they'll be able to fire him with cause and not pay him. Then probably promote an assistant as interim for the year. The new owner will take over the team officially by the end of the season, so he will probably want to choose the next coach.

If they fire Billups, I think they need to promote Nate Bjorkgren, and Tiago Splitter as the assistant coach.

[eminence]

Sounds stupid for a guy in his position, but not really something related to the league at all.

That's a pretty naive take. When a league bear hugs gambling like the NBA has, better believe that it has externalities. That's not to say that it absolves Billups for his accountability, but it certainly is telling about the culture of the league as it relates to gambling if people working directly with the league, who are already making millions, are engaged in alleged organized criminal gambling operations. Call me crazy, but the screams as a pervasive culture problem.

It also can't be looked at in a vacuum. This comes after a Porter brother being banned by the league, Rozier being arrested, assistant coach Jones in Cleveland being arrested. They are very much interconnected by optics no matter how disparate the allegations.

As in the gambling in this instance wasn't related to the league, so the league isn't (as of current evidence) going to have any legal issues.

I agree it's a negative morals wise. But there are tons of issues on and well above this scale that the league shrugs off - including with Chauncey.

[Castle Black]

Read on Twitter

[jigga_man]

The rampant TDS in this thread is making this even more entertaining

[jowglenn]

Apparently it's not just that they were hosting illegal raked games (common thing where it's essentially an unlicensed/untaxed casino)

Billups was involved in FULLY RIGGED poker games - rigged decks, setups to straight up cheat players out of money.

Matt Berkey (poker pro) was talking about it a few years ago on his podcast (27:15 mark): https://www.youtube.com/live/G-TKR5ca5jI?feature=share&t=1635

[Calvin Klein]

Guessing the timing has something to do with Zhao buying a pardon. Chauncey should have done a crypto scam instead.

Just like our president did and nothing happened.

[DusterBuster]

I wouldn’t trust this justice department. It’s filled with incompetent nimcompoops. I want to see the actual charging documents and evidence before I make any judgments.

I have no nice things to say about this admin, but from the press conference, it sounds like this investigation has been going on for years, even back when Billups was still a player if I heard that right.

I have no doubt that it’s legit but I seriously doubt the competence of the FBI under Patel. I wouldn’t be surprised if any of this is rushed, inaccurate or Billups’ role is much smaller because they want a big name to splash across the media. Let’s wait and see though.

Absolutely no argument from me. My only slight turn I take is I find Patel so incompetent that while he "leads" the FBI, I believe he's just a glorified talking head. He just gets **** on his desk and then goes to a podium to read it on TV when it happens. I seriously doubt he's "directing" anything, just being told what to say and do from others.

Just my opinion, but yeah, I give him basically zero credit for even being competent enough to "rush" an investigation.

[HMFFL]

Gilbert Arenas ranting everybody out........

[DusterBuster]

Curious what Portland does for a coach now. I assume they'll be able to fire him with cause and not pay him. Then probably promote an assistant as interim for the year. The new owner will take over the team officially by the end of the season, so he will probably want to choose the next coach.

If they fire Billups, I think they need to promote Nate Bjorkgren, and Tiago Splitter as the assistant coach.

Yep, pretty much what everyone in town suspects to happen.

I'd actually love to see that swapped. Keep Nate in assistant for consistency and let Splitter get the HC job, but I don't expect that to happen.

[LockoutSeason]

Gilbert Arenas ranting everybody out........

Funny how Gilbert’s case had ties to Israeli organized criminals. Now it’s all about the Italian mafia.

Interesting…