Follow-up to NBA gambling scandal: Three major suspense waiting to be revealed Billups may be expelled from the Hall of Fame

Since the start of this NBA season on October 27, gambling scandals have always been the focus of attention from the outside world and will not subside in the short term.

Previously, the FBI announced that more than 30 people had been charged in two related but independent criminal investigations. Heat's Rozier, Trail Blazers coach Billups and former Cavaliers player/assistant Damon Jones are among them.

How will the gambling scandal develop? The well-known media CBS pointed out that three major suspense are waiting to be revealed-

1. What consequences will Billups and Rozier face?

Both men face serious criminal charges. Billups is scheduled to appear in the Eastern District Federal Court in Brooklyn on November 24 (the same below), and Rozier has agreed to appear in the same federal court on December 9.

The NBA has announced that Billups and Rozier will temporarily leave their posts, and the Trail Blazers have appointed Split as the interim head coach. Notably, although Billups is named in only one of the two indictments, he appears to be connected to both cases. Federal charges allege that an individual known as "Co-conspirator No. 8" — an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from 1997 to 2014 and a coach since at least 2021 — told Earnest, a defendant in both cases, that the Trail Blazers would rest key players in a game on March 24 before the information became public. The news reportedly led to more than $100,000 in bets placed on the Trail Blazers.

According to the NBA's relevant charter, if a coach "directly or indirectly" discloses confidential or non-public information related to the team or the league to any person or entity, and "knows or should know that the person or entity intends to use such information to place bets of money or other items of value on any game or event of the league or the NBA Development League," the president has the right to permanently ban him.

In April 2024, after a league investigation, the NBA suspended Joetay Porter. The investigation concluded that Porter placed bets on NBA games, leaked confidential information to gamblers, and missed multiple games in order to validate bets on his "lower-than-expected numbers." The federal government alleges Rozier engaged in Porter-like behavior - missing games for the purpose of betting on sports.

The charges show that Rozier told Rust that he would pretend to be injured and leave the game during the Charlotte Hornets' game against the New Orleans Pelicans on March 24, 2023. Laster allegedly told Fairley the news, who in turn told Hennen (there are also allegations that Hennen also told Fairley the news when Porter was scheduled to miss two games in 2024). Hennen allegedly made multiple bets on Rozier's "numbers below expectations" and directed multiple accomplices to make the same bets. Among the unnamed accomplices suspected of betting on Rozier's "data lower than expected", one is a relative of Rozier - this relative has made dozens of previous bets on Rozier's "data higher than expected", and this is the first time he has changed his betting direction.

Billups and Rozier both insisted that they were innocent. NBA President Silver said in an interview that the league had previously launched an investigation into abnormal betting behavior related to Rozier's game, but "no problems were found." However, he also pointed out that the government "has subpoena power, can require people to be jailed, and can use all kinds of measures that the coalition office cannot implement." If Billups is proven to have leaked inside information for betting purposes, and Rozier is proven to have deliberately limited his participation in games for betting purposes, their contracts may be voided and their careers may end.

Billups will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. The Hall of Fame has relevant policies that stipulate that if a member’s behavior harms the integrity or reputation of basketball, the Hall of Fame has the right to review it and may take disciplinary action. Information shows that there is no precedent for expulsion from the Hall of Fame. If Billups is confirmed guilty and the circumstances are serious, he may become the first star to be expelled from the Hall of Fame.

2. Will other NBA players be involved?

The federal investigation that triggered this indictment is still ongoing, and the possibility that more current or retired players and coaches may be involved cannot be ruled out.

In the sports gambling case, the federal government alleged that an unnamed person who lived in Florida and was a "multiple NBA player" conspired with Fairley to use his relationship with a starting player of the Magic to learn before the public knew that the team planned to rest some core players in the game on April 6, 2023. This information was allegedly used to place bets on the Magic, and at least one bet was successful. The identity of "Conspirator No. 1" is known to the grand jury but has not been disclosed to the public; the identity of the player with whom the conspirator had a personal relationship is also currently being kept secret.

Malik Beasley previously played for the Detroit Pistons. He is currently a free agent and has not yet signed with any team. Reports emerged in late June that he was under federal investigation for unusual behavior related to betting on personal data. Silver said afterward that the NBA had launched an independent investigation into the matter. Although Beasley did not appear on the list of sports betting indictments released Thursday, that does not mean that he is completely cleared of suspicion.

Another indictment mentioned that Billups and Jones (who is also a defendant in a sports betting case) have been involved in fixing poker games since 2019. The charges allege that the organizers used these former NBA players as "signatures" to attract "rookie players" (i.e., unwitting participants) to join the games, which were manipulated through modified card shufflers, see-through poker tables and other equipment. It was clearly mentioned that Billups had participated in such a game in Las Vegas in April 2019. According to reporter Torre, Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue also attended the event, but did not sit at the card table where Billups was..

Torre also said that many professional athletes had participated in poker games organized by the indicted individuals. The gang allegedly organizes both rigged poker games and "fair but still illegal" poker games. In 2019, Kevin Garnett went to Los Angeles to participate in such a game, but quickly left early - according to him, he originally thought it was a post-game party, not a poker game.

3. How will the scandal change the relationship between the NBA and sports betting?

Considering that 13 of the 30 NBA teams have local event broadcast rights owned by FANDUEL (online betting platform), this issue seems a bit subtle. At present, the legal sports betting business is deeply bound to the commercial interests of the NBA league, each team and broadcast partners.

But this does not mean that the status quo will remain unchanged. Before the scandal was exposed, Silver said in an interview with ESPN that the league supports reforms to "personal data betting."

Silver said: "This is not completely under our control, but we have asked some partners to reduce some personal data betting projects. Especially for players with two-way contracts-these players are not as invested in the results of the game as regular players. Some data that seem to have little impact on the total score and are insignificant (such as a certain player's rebounds) numbers), in fact, it is easy to be manipulated. Therefore, we are working hard to work with gambling companies to continuously explore in practice and develop more control measures to prevent such manipulation.”

Xiao Hua also mentioned in the interview that although legal sports betting is “unlikely to disappear”, “more supervision is needed.” He added: "I hope there will be regulation at the federal level instead of states setting their own rules. And the amount of promotion and advertising related to gambling also needs to be monitored."

Silver has always believed that regulated, legal sports betting is better than illegal betting, in part because "we can now monitor it in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago."

Three days later, Silver said that when he learned about the prosecution, he was "deeply disturbed and felt heavy in his heart."