Blazers coach Chauncey Billups arrested by FBI for illegal gambling

[Charlie Sollers]

Shut the league down for 3 seasons. Have Kash Patel and Trump clean up the league. Resume back in the 2028/2029

[Ckay]

[Mephariel]

This is all Silver's fault for allowing crime into the game for cash. Along with other lame attempts to ruin the game and being woke. Worst commish in all of Sports.

If Stern were still alive and running it, the NBA would have cut a huge chunk into the NFL pie. Its been there for the taking since roughly 2014 but Silver has been too busy being incompetent with crime and corruption. Yes, Stern ruled the league with an iron fist. But that's what it needed.

Stern never made the NBA as popular as Silver. I love this blindness of Stern. Stern was going to let Jordan get away with cap circumvention.

Lies.

Everything you see today in terms of popularity, Stern laid the foundation. Stern resurrected the league at a point when games were not even played live. Then had the foresight to make it a players league, basically saying teams don't move tickets, players do. And he was right. Along with Jordan, helped globalized the Sport in the 90s and make it into one of the big 3. And all the influx of foreign talent we see today? Doesn't happen without Stern. David Stern started all that in the 90s. Silver hasn't progressed the Sport forward in any way shape or form. Not one.

Also, I never will claim Stern was perfect. But he is dancing circles around $ilver as a commissioner.

The NBA just signed the largest TV deal in its history.
The NBA has revenue growth every single year under Silver.
The NBA is more global than ever before, with influx of international stars, including plans to expand to Europe. The NBA is bigger than ever in China.
The NBA has the highest level of attendance in the last two years.
For all the flaws in the WNBA, the WNBA is now more popular then ever.

Stern laid the foundation, but Silver was the one who continued to grow it. I have nothing but respect for what Stern did, but Silver absolutely grew the NBA.

[RHODEY]

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

Wow, initially I thought all of this was BS because who cares about playing a poker game, I do it all the time but damn if what this guy is saying is true, this is definitely racketeering and I have to say Billups should be punished for it.

He is literally the biggest POS of the story in my book because he is actively trying to ensnare new players into the scheme and ruin players lives by getting them to join rigged games they can't win.

That assuming he had a choice at that point...the Mafia can be very persuasive.

[TroubleS0me]

He's called Mr. Big Shot for a reason lol.
I didnt know he was the gambling type

[Mephariel]

Shut the league down for 3 seasons. Have Kash Patel and Trump clean up the league. Resume back in the 2028/2029

George Santos is back on the street. The Capital rioters are pardoned. Are you sure you want this guy to "clean up" something?

[Mephariel]

The blind love for Stern is amusing. Like based on the posts above, you would think the NBA was bigger back then.

He saved them from dying and grew it. Most young people I know do not care for basketball. Most are football fans. I even know soccer fans.

The NBA growth was created by Stern. Silver just followed it up. Stern pushed for the expansion back in 2000. Silver has just to capitalize on it.

Silver has destroyed the game and made it look like 2K.

He destroyed the game by growing it immensely? You give credit to stern for growing the league, but not Silver?

[Indomitable]

The blind love for Stern is amusing. Like based on the posts above, you would think the NBA was bigger back then.

He saved them from dying and grew it. Most young people I know do not care for basketball. Most are football fans. I even know soccer fans.

The NBA growth was created by Stern. Silver just followed it up. Stern pushed for the expansion back in 2000. Silver has just to capitalize on it.

Silver has destroyed the game and made it look like 2K.

He destroyed the game by growing it immensely? You give credit to stern for growing the league, but not Silver?

Give him credit for what?

The star thing was Sterns first
Expanding it Stern started back in the 90s.


The gambling and ridiculous flopping is all Silvers

[-Luke-]

Now I get that Sopranos episode. When Agent Harris said "How about those Nets?" to Tony and Tony answered "This guy, Williams...", he actually only secretly gave Agent Harris tips about which NBA players were participating in his illegal poker games.

[Kurtz]

Shut the league down for 3 seasons. Have Kash Patel and Trump clean up the league. Resume back in the 2028/2029

League will reopen with white, American-born players only, only teams from red states participate and Trump is part-owner of every franchise.

[pepe1991]

I was never big fan of Stern, but league felt "healthy" as sport under him, and he actually worked to make league better product for SPORTS FANS.
He had to deal with wannabe gangsters, actual gangsters, hip hop culture from 90s, players beating coaches etc.


Silver turned product into casual spectators friendly , glorified friendly games,where due inflation of stats every team & fanbase is convinced that they have superstar(s) or future superstar(s).
Silver gave power to players without any tools to prevent abuse of power. That led to massive migration and superteams creation and he had to change cap rules to bribe players into staying with original teams, creating massive new problems for teams (supermax is toxic contract for team that uses it ).

Silver allowed player to create own player's agency & abuses all the CBA rules of tempering. That player for years has more power than Silver himself. We all know who he is.

Silver promised expansion but once again without any clear idea how. Current idea of expansion in Europe is type of league nobody in Europe wants. That thing without arab- oil-lords ain't happening. Good luck getting them to play by "rule book" of CBA.

Silver promised bigger revenue and indeed gave bigger revenue, but it is very clear that owners are fighting back and that's why Second Apron became a thing. To give sports excuse for owners to stop spending money on basketball team.
There are rumors that Celtics were sold because team simply was too expensive & not profitable under cap burden any more.

Silver still promises cap raise, but only revenue he can exploit is gambling money. I guess oil money is next. Once you combine sport that uses system of rewarding bad teams for being bad & already shady lottery and industry of gambling you are creating such a problem that he is simply too dumb to understand or too greedy to see.


NBA's holy Grail of integrity is salary cap , as he promotes parity. Yet, we kind a already know that teams abused it & found ways how to avoid cap.

I would personally argue that his idea of "parity" in current system is nothing but forced contenders cycling, as teams, even ones who do it "right way", still have no tools how to keep great roster for longer period of time due Second Apron restrictions & punishment.


btw Silver and NBA never "discover" anything. That's his modus operandi. Silver didn't discover or exposed Sterling being racist ( everybody knew) it was TMZ.
Silver didn't discover anything about Kawhi, Torre did. NBA in 2019 had investigation, despite Raptors & Lakers yelling , investigation didn't find anything wrong with Uncle Dennis asking parts of ownership of hockey team

Silver didn't discover anything about Rozier. Rather rushed in January to proclaim him freed from all charges. Until FBI dropped hammer.

Silver never finds anything, Silver always has same MO. Sweeping everything under a rug and pretending it didn't happen. Guy flat out lied to fans & media he never heared of Aspiration like 20 days ago.

[Mephariel]

He saved them from dying and grew it. Most young people I know do not care for basketball. Most are football fans. I even know soccer fans.

The NBA growth was created by Stern. Silver just followed it up. Stern pushed for the expansion back in 2000. Silver has just to capitalize on it.

Silver has destroyed the game and made it look like 2K.

He destroyed the game by growing it immensely? You give credit to stern for growing the league, but not Silver?

I give him credit for what?

The star thing was Sterns first
Expanding it Stern started back in the 90s.


The gambling and ridiculous flopping is all Silvers

So because Stern started it, Silver can't get credit for getting the NBA the largest TV deal in history? Remember that dumb post where people thought the NBA couldn't get double the current deal? Attendance is at an all time high, and the game is bigger and more international than before. Revenue continue to grow year after year. Are you saying 50 years from now, if the NBA is doing great, that commissioner can't get credit because Stern started it?

If the NBA is shrinking, you have a point. But that is not the case. At least not so far.

[JShuttlesworth]

Can't wait for the next edition of the Whistleblower podcast

[Optms]

Stern never made the NBA as popular as Silver. I love this blindness of Stern. Stern was going to let Jordan get away with cap circumvention.

Lies.

Everything you see today in terms of popularity, Stern laid the foundation. Stern resurrected the league at a point when games were not even played live. Then had the foresight to make it a players league, basically saying teams don't move tickets, players do. And he was right. Along with Jordan, helped globalized the Sport in the 90s and make it into one of the big 3. And all the influx of foreign talent we see today? Doesn't happen without Stern. David Stern started all that in the 90s. Silver hasn't progressed the Sport forward in any way shape or form. Not one.

Also, I never will claim Stern was perfect. But he is dancing circles around $ilver as a commissioner.

The NBA just signed the largest TV deal in its history.
The NBA has revenue growth every single year under Silver.
The NBA is more global than ever before, with influx of international stars, including plans to expand to Europe. The NBA is bigger than ever in China.
The NBA has the highest level of attendance in the last two years.
For all the flaws in the WNBA, the WNBA is now more popular then ever.

Stern laid the foundation, but Silver was the one who continued to grow it. I have nothing but respect for what Stern did, but Silver absolutely grew the NBA.

- The NBA signing the largest TV deal ever doesn't reflect that Silver has grown the game. Context - Corporations with the buying power of Disney and Amazon didn't exist in their current state 25 years ago. Especially Amazon. The rich get richer and so do their spending habits. Nothing new.

- Revenue growth. Again, he is riding on the coattails of a billion dollar company that was established and given to him by Daddy Stern. So Stern's product is still relevant today. I guess we can credit Silver for not absolutely running it into the ground I guess.

- Global growth - Again, another residual effect of Stern. There is literately no NBA presence overseas without Stern. Hell, it was barely a presence in the US when he took it over. The NBA was already a global sport with a high influx of foreign talent at the time Stern stepped down so giving credit to Silver for inheriting a billion dollar global business is ridiculous.

- The WNBA literately is only relevant because of one player changing the landscape of that overnight. Silver has zero to do with Clark being a US icon in women's sports. She was already bringing new eyes to women's basketball before even getting drafted to the WNBA.

[dockingsched]

Billups will end up banned from the nba for the sports betting scandal that he’s supposedly not involved with at first glance. He’s cooked.

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[Mephariel]

I was never big fan of Stern, but league felt "healthy" as sport under him, and he actually worked to make league better product for SPORTS FANS.
He had to deal with wannabe gangsters, actual gangsters, hip hop culture from 90s, players beating coaches etc.


Silver turned product into casual spectators friendly , glorified friendly games,where due inflation of stats every team & fanbase is convinced that they have superstar(s) or future superstar(s).
Silver gave power to players without any tools to prevent abuse of power. That led to massive migration and superteams creation and he had to change cap rules to bribe players into staying with original teams, creating massive new problems for teams (supermax is toxic contract for team that uses it ).

Silver allowed player to create own player's agency & abuses all the CBA rules of tempering. That player for years has more power than Silver himself. We all know who he is.

Silver promised expansion but once again without any clear idea how. Current idea of expansion in Europe is type of league nobody in Europe wants. That thing without arab- oil-lords ain't happening. Good luck getting them to play by "rule book" of CBA.

Silver promised bigger revenue and indeed gave bigger revenue, but it is very clear that owners are fighting back and that's why Second Apron became a thing. To give sports excuse for owners to stop spending money on basketball team.
There are rumors that Celtics were sold because team simply was too expensive & not profitable under cap burden any more.

Silver still promises cap raise, but only revenue he can exploit is gambling money. I guess oil money is next. Once you combine sport that uses system of rewarding bad teams for being bad & already shady lottery and industry of gambling you are creating such a problem that he is simply too dumb to understand or too greedy to see.


NBA's holy Grail of integrity is salary cap , as he promotes parity. Yet, we kind a already know that teams abused it & found ways how to avoid cap.

I would personally argue that his idea of "parity" in current system is nothing but forced contenders cycling, as teams, even ones who do it "right way", still have no tools how to keep great roster for longer period of time due Second Apron restrictions & punishment.


btw Silver and NBA never "discover" anything. That's his modus operandi. Silver didn't discover or exposed Sterling being racist ( everybody knew) it was TMZ.
Silver didn't discover anything about Kawhi, Torre did. NBA in 2019 had investigation, despite Raptors & Lakers yelling , investigation didn't find anything wrong with Uncle Dennis asking parts of ownership of hockey team

Silver didn't discover anything about Rozier. Rather rushed in January to proclaim him freed from all charges. Until FBI dropped hammer.

Silver never finds anything, Silver always has same MO. Sweeping everything under a rug and pretending it didn't happen. Guy flat out lied to fans & media he never heared of Aspiration like 20 days ago.

The first super team was created in 2008 with the Celtics under Stern. Lebron went to Miami in 2010 and created the super team under Stern. But somehow, he didn't allow players to abuse the league but Silver did? Silver created the second apron to prevent this from happening. What did Stern do?

All your complains about Silver is conjecture. We haven't seen NBA Europe yet. I am not going to judge him on something that hasn't happened. The owners are fighting back against revenue? Are you even reading what you wrote? The NBA team valuations grew tremendously under Silver. What are you even talking about when it comes to spending revenue. The NBA is spending more because revenue is more. That is how revenue sharing works.

Everything else you said is just ranting about what he could have done in specific cases. Nothing about the game.

But we all know you hate the NBA. It is obvious. Every post you made is about how the NBA is failing, how nobody making money, and how NBA shouldn't be in China right?

[Dan33185]

Shut the league down for 3 seasons. Have Kash Patel and Trump clean up the league. Resume back in the 2028/2029

League will reopen with white, American-born players only, only teams from red states participate and Trump is part-owner of every franchise.

We're still doing the whole "Trump is racist" thing?

[DusterBuster]

Shut the league down for 3 seasons. Have Kash Patel and Trump clean up the league. Resume back in the 2028/2029

League will reopen with white, American-born players only, only teams from red states participate and Trump is part-owner of every franchise.

We're still doing the whole "Trump is racist" thing?

I mean, I believe he is, but not sure what baring this has on this case.

This case started under Biden's FBI. Trump / Patel just inherited it and followed through on it. Don't see how this situation is political in any way.

[Dan33185]

League will reopen with white, American-born players only, only teams from red states participate and Trump is part-owner of every franchise.

We're still doing the whole "Trump is racist" thing?

I mean, I believe he is, but not sure what baring this has on this case.

This case started under Biden's FBI. Trump / Patel just inherited it and followed through on it. Don't see how this situation is political in any way.

Nor do I, but for some reason people just can't help themselves.

[PushDaRock]

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