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Posted on: October 30, 2025, 02:34h.
Last updated on: October 30, 2025, 02:35h.
- Rozier, Billups placed on leave by NBA, not receiving salaries
- Garnett mentioned in reporting about poker games under investigation by FBI, NFL’s Gates as well
According to investigative journalist Pablo Torre, a number of pro athletes played in private poker games organized by those indicated by the FBI, including Kevin Garnett.
Rigged Poker Games
The FBI last week dropped the hammer down with arrests of 34 people allegedly involved in rigged poker games involving technology like x-ray poker tables that could read cards, rigged shuffling machines, glasses that read marked cards. The years-long investigation into the illegal activity involved tens of millions of dollars in fraud, FBI director Kash Patel has said.
NBA celebrities like Chauncey Billups, coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, were allegedly used to lure in players who liked the idea of sitting down to play cards with sports celebrities. Billups’ lawyers have denied any wrong doing by their client.
The FBI indictment said the rigged poker games also involved members of Italian-American crime families, who were called on in part to enforce the payment of debts.
Gates Denies Reporting
Former NBA player Damon Jones was also named in the FBI indictments.
Garnett was not named in any FBI indictments. Clippers head coach Ty Lue was also mentioned in Torre’s reporting as having allegedly been involved in a rigged poker game in Las Vegas in 2019, but Torre reported that according to his sources Lue wasn’t playing at the same table as Billups. Lue wasn’t named in any indictments.
On the NFL side, hall-of-fame tight end Antonio Gates was allegedly involved in a rigged Miami poker game, Torre also reported.
Gates’ spokesperson issued a statement denying that reporting, reminding people that he as well hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.
Federal authorities said those rigged poker games began as early as 2019.
Mob Involvement
The second part of the FBI indictment involves current Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, arrested by the FBI last week for his alleged involvement in a sports betting scandal. In March 2023, when he was a member of the Charlotte Hornets, authorities alleged that Rozier passed on information that he was going to take himself out of a Hornet game on March 23, then purposely pulled himself out just 10 minutes in so bettors could cash in on $260,000 worth of prop betting.
Rozier was said to have passed that information to a co-defendant in the federal indictment, who then sold that information to gamblers.
Legal sportsbooks had in fact flagged the activity that night and halted betting on Rozier prop betting. A week after the game the defendants were said to have counted the money received from wagering on the game at Rozier’s Philadelphia home.
Meanwhile, according to ESPN, neither Rozier not Billups will be paid during their leave of absence from the NBA.
Rozier is on the last year of a four-year contract that is paying him USD $26.6 million this season, in instalments. That money will be held in escrow. If he is cleared and allowed to return to the Heat he will be paid back in full. Last season with the Heat, Rozier averaged 10.6 points per game, 3.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists, averaging 25.9 minutes per night.
Billups is paid $7 million to coach the Trail Blazers, but according to ESPN he’ll lose that money until the outcome of the FBI case.
Silver: Rozier Cooperated
ESPN has also reported that Rozier was facing a tax lien from the IRS of $8 million during the time of the suspicious betting activity.
“Because bets were placed through legalized betting companies, they picked up aberrational behaviour around a particular game in March 2023,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said to NBA TV last week. “That was brought to our attention by the regulators and the betting companies. We then looked into that situation … very transparent about it. While there was that aberrational betting we frankly couldn’t find anything. Terry at the time cooperated. He gave the league office his phone. He sat down for an interview.
Rozier’s lawyer has issued a statement saying his client is not a gambler.
Rozier Salary Withheld
“We ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence despite that aberrational information. We then worked directly with law enforcement. That was over two years ago. The federal government has subpoena power, can threaten to put people in jail, can do a lot of things a league office cannot do.
“So we’ve been working with them since then. [Rozier] hasn’t been convicted, in fairness to Terry, but obviously it doesn’t look good. There is a balance here of protecting people’s rights and investigating.”
The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
In a related matter, former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, already banned by the NBA for betting on games he played in, is scheduled to be sentenced in December, and faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
