The Chauncey Billups gambling trial is officially scheduled to begin in September. The Portland Trail Blazers head coach, who was indicted in October on wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges tied to an alleged rigged poker scheme, will go to trial just as NBA training camp opens. The timing could not be worse for the Blazers.
This is a real legal situation. Billups is accused of being one of the alleged scheme’s “face cards” who used his celebrity to lure high rollers to poker tables that were rigged with X ray technology and altered shuffling machines. Prosecutors say the operation was backed by the Lucchese, Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese Mafia families. We are not talking about a parking ticket here.
Billups pleaded not guilty in November. He maintains his innocence. His attorneys will get their shot to make their case in front of a jury starting in September. Judge Ramon Reyes set the trial date and seems intent on not delaying it further.
For the Blazers, this is a disaster on a few different levels.
First, the basketball question. Billups was placed on immediate leave when the indictment came down. Tiago Splitter took over as interim. Splitter went 42-40, won a playoff game, and parlayed it into the Chicago Bulls job. Portland just hired Micah Nori. So the Blazers do not need Billups to coach anymore. They have moved on at the head coaching position.
But Billups is technically still owed money on his contract. The team has not paid him during the leave, per reports. If he is acquitted, he could come back asking for his job back, or at least the back pay. That is a legal headache the Blazers do not want.
If he is convicted, the league office will move to ban him for life from any NBA role. That removes the back pay question. But it also makes the Blazers a permanent footnote in one of the biggest gambling scandals in NBA history. The franchise will be associated with this case forever.
Tom Dundon, the Blazers’ new owner, walked into this mess. He bought the team in March, four months after the Billups indictment. He has had to navigate a head coaching search, a roster reset, and a federal criminal trial against his former head coach all at the same time. The fact that he has been getting roasted for cheap cost cutting decisions while dealing with all of this is somewhat understandable. Not excusable, but understandable.
The trial itself is going to be must watch programming for NBA fans. The allegations are out of a mob movie. X ray poker tables. Marked cards. Hidden cameras. Crime family backing. Famous athletes being used as bait to attract whales. If even half of the prosecutor’s allegations are true, this is going to be the most damaging gambling story in NBA history.
Billups is not the only NBA figure involved. Heat guard Terry Rozier was also indicted and pleaded not guilty. Former NBA player Damon Jones is also part of the case. The league has a real problem on its hands. Adam Silver has been quiet publicly because of the ongoing investigation, but the fallout from this case could be enormous.
For Blazers fans, the Billups trial is a reminder that this franchise has been operating under a cloud all year. The hope was that Tiago Splitter’s interim run and the playoff appearance would put it in the rearview. Now the trial is going to be back in the news every day in September while the team is opening training camp.
Nori’s first season is going to be defined as much by what happens in a courtroom in Brooklyn as by what happens on the court in Portland.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
