NBA player and head coach arrested over alleged gambling offences
Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups have been indicted in relation to two separate incidents.
US.- NBA’s Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups have been arrested in separate, unrelated cases of alleged gambling offences. Both deny the allegations against them.
Rozier and five other people are accused of participating in sports betting-related offences, including allegedly faking injuries. Joseph Nocella, federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, said it was “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
In an unrelated case, Billups is charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix card games tied to La Cosa Nostra organised crime families. Four of the five major crime families in New York are said to have been involved in a scheme that made use of special contact lenses and glasses to read pre-marked cards and an X-ray table.
The NBA said both Rozier and Billups were placed on immediate leave from their teams as it reviews the federal indictments. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” it said.
