Recently, it was reported by ESPN that the FBI had arrested dozens of individuals as part of a gambling probe, with one having to do with alleged rigged bets in a series of poker games with ties to New York Mafia families, and the other with illegal betting as it pertained to NBA games. Among those arrested were Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, in connection with the poker games, and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, in connection with the alleged gambling.
Recently, a clip from just over two years ago was dug up featuring professional poker player Matt Berkey talking about a time he heard about a game that appeared to be rigged and orchestrated by Billups.
“Cheating is bad okay? There are a lot of stories about it,” said Berkey, via his account on X, formerly Twitter. “There was one that cropped up, this must’ve been like five years ago, 2019ish I think, four years ago. Where there was this game, it started in LA then it came to Vegas for a few days. And it was all built around Chauncey Billups.”
Berkey then spoke on how he first heard about the game.
“And I had heard about the game and the person who told me about it was like, look I know the game runners I’m telling you 100% this game is on the up and up. And I was like, ‘well I know a lot of the people that are involved and I’m telling you 100% that it is not on the up and up,'” he said.
Tough news for the Blazers
The Billups news comes just a day after the Portland Trail Blazers kicked off a highly anticipated 2025-26 season with a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.
The Blazers were expected to take a step up this year, and while they still might, they'll have to do it without Billups, at least for the time being.
The Blazers will next take the floor on Friday for a home game against the Golden State Warriors.
