As good as the first week of the 2025-26 NBA season has been, Commissioner Adam Silver and the league office have been dealing with a dark cloud that has overshadowed everything.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were among around 30 people arrested by the FBI on Thursday as part of ongoing investigations into separate but linked illegal gambling and illegal poker games cases.
Both Rozier and Billups were placed on administrative leave by the league, and there is currently no timetable for when they could potentially return, that is, if they are to ever return to the NBA.
Silver and the NBA office are taking this matter seriously, as they have been in full cooperation with law enforcement as these investigations dive further into the corruption that has existed in illegal gambling activities over the last handful of years.
While the FBI's investigations continue, the NBA is now hearing from the US Senate.
Many members of the government now want more information as to what exactly happened with Rozier, Billups, and the NBA, as a United States Senate committee sent a letter to Silver and the league office on Monday claiming that the federal indictments are a matter of “Congressional concern,” according to David Purdum of ESPN.
This committee, run by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, is asking for Silver and the NBA to provide documents outlining the league's gambling policies and a list of investigations regarding betting.
“The integrity of NBA games must be trustworthy and free from the influence of organized crime or gambling-related activity,” the committee letter said, via ESPN. “Sports betting scandals like this one may lead the American public to assume that all sports are corrupt.”
It is worth noting that this is the second letter that the NBA has received from a Congressional committee.
Adam Silver ‘deeply disturbed' by Rozier, Billups arrests
Rozier is being accused of a betting scandal that can be comparable to an insider trading scandal involving stock market manipulation. In Rozier's case, evidence points to him telling specific members of a betting ring that he would leave a game early in 2023 while playing for the Charlotte Hornets.
As a result, several individuals placed high wagers on the “unders” for Rozier's prop bets on multiple sportsbooks, knowing that he would be leaving the game early due to inside information not made public.
On March 23, 2023, the day Rozier left a game with a supposed “injury,” it is said that the defendants placed more than $200,000 of wagers on the unders for his prop bets. Upon playing nine minutes in the game, Rozier exited and did not return, resulting in these bets being counted and paid out as winners.
Billups is being accused of a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games backed by Mafia families. In these games, it is said that Billups and other sports figures were used to lure targets into playing rigged poker games, where altered shuffling machines, X-ray tables, and other devices were used to fix the games and defraud many of millions of dollars.
Silver was asked about the FBI investigation in Madison Square Garden at the Celtics-Knicks game on Friday, pointing out how troublesome this matter is for everyone.
“My initial reaction was that I was deeply disturbed. There is nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition,” Silver told NBA on Prime's Cassidy Hubbarth. “I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting.”
When question about Rozier being allowed to continue playing after the NBA's investigation in 2024 found no wrongdoing, Silver confirmed that the league took all measures to ensure their investigation was throughout. Ultimately, the NBA concluded there was no “aberration” in what they found, but they also continued working with law enforcement investigating the matter.
The NBA continues to work with law enforcement and the FBI after the recent arrests involving Rozier and Billups on Thursday.
