President Donald Trump has officially weighed in on the NBA gambling scandal.
The president, during a scrum with reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, was asked about the controversy, which saw basketball Hall-of-Famer Chauncey Billups and current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier arrested this week for alleged major betting violations. Trump kept his answer short and sweet — but made it clear he thought it was bad news.
“Have you seen this NBA gambling investigation?” one reporter asked him.
“Yeah, terrible,” Trump responded.
“What do you think about it?” the reporter followed up.
“What do I think?” Trump repeated and chuckled. “I think it’s very bad. I think it’s terrible.”
The president’s brief comment on the matter comes a few days after Billups, Rozier, and former NBA player Damon Jones were among dozens of people who were arrested in two separate illegal gambling cases spearheaded by the FBI.
Billups, who is now the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, was charged for his alleged role in a Mafia-backed illegal poker operation; Rozier was charged for faking an injury that allowed his associates to bet the “under” on his game totals for points and other stats. And Jones was charged for supplying information on key players, like LeBron James, sitting out games before it became public.
ESPN star Stephen A. Smith, minutes after the FBI held a press conference on Thursday to discuss the arrests, speculated Trump was driving the crackdown in order to sully the reputation of the NBA. Trump, Smith said, is focused on “getting everybody,” after his political enemies tried to put him behind bars during his time out of the White House from 2021 to 2025.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s very concerning. We don’t know where this is gonna go. But everybody better brace themselves, because he’s coming,” Smith warned.
Watch above via CNN.