The NBA has announced that Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups have been “placed on immediate leave from their teams” in the wake of both being arrested in relation to illegal sports betting and poker games schemes.
The NBA released this statement about the arrests:
_“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”_
Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach Tiago Splitter will take over as the team’s interim head coach in place of Billups, according to a [report from Shams Charania of ESPN](https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1981405099701522586). Splitter was a seven-year NBA player who had also been a head coach in Paris before _joining_ Billups’ staff.
Billups was directly named in one of the two federal indictments as a “Face Card” in an alleged illegal poker scheme. The federal case says Billups’ name and presence were used as a draw to bring in “fish” to what were illegal poker games, but ones promoted as “straight” and based on skill, not rigged. In reality, there was technology, such as rigged card-shuffling machines and X-ray tables, that enabled the cheaters in the game to know what cards certain players were holding and defraud them. Billups “received a portion of the criminal proceeds in exchange for their participation,” according to the indictment.
Rozier has been arrested and charged, along with former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones, in alleged illegal sports gambling schemes. Rozier is on a $26.6 million guaranteed contract with the Miami Heat this season and was active and on the bench for the team’s opener Wednesday night in Orlando, but did not play (coach’s decision). Jones was also named in the indictment for illegal poker.
The federal indictment charges that Rozier and Jones “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches that was likely to affect the outcome of upcoming NBA games or individual players’ performances,” then passed that information on to their co-conspirators ([some of whom were involved in the Jontay Porter case with the Raptors](https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/nba-bans-raptors-jontay-porter-for-life-due-to-involvement-in-betting-on-nba-games)). Those co-conspirators allegedly either placed bets or got others to do so.
The indictment focuses on a game on March 23, 2023, when Rozier played for the Charlotte Hornets. Rozier started that game but played less than 10 minutes before leaving with an injury, scoring just 5 points (he averaged more than 30 minutes and 21 points a game for the Hornets that season). The NBA investigated this situation and, this summer, cleared Rozier, saying he did not violate any league rules (Rozier did not play in any of the eight remaining Hornets games that season). Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, told NBC Sports that federal prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing,” and that Rozier planned to fight the charges.