On Thursday morning, the FBI announced the arrests of members of the NBA community after a joint investigation into sports betting activities, arrests that, while appearing to be just based on reporting, feel to be purposely timed and targeted.
Arrested were Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, former Cleveland Cavaliers player and coach Damon Jones and a slew of other individuals, some tied to organized crime.
Billups was charged with being involved in rigged poker games involving the mafia.
Rozier is accused of sharing insider information and benefiting from it.
Jones is charged with selling insider information about player availability to bettors.
The issue with their arrest is not the charges, crimes or ethical violations. If it’s proven they committed the crimes they’re accused of, then they all deserve to be punished.
Instead, what makes this situation feel uneasy is the way in which it happened, when it occurred and how these players were prominently featured in public despite others being involved.
The arrests came on the first day of the NBA’s 2025-26 season, a time when sports media and basketball fans worldwide would be tuning in to watch opening night games between the defending champions OKC Thunder and the Houston Rockets with newly acquired Kevin Durant and new-look Luka and the Lakers taking on Steph Curry and the Warriors.
Over 30 people across 11 states were arrested on charges including money laundering, robbery, wire fraud, gambling and extortion, yet the only faces we’ve seen plastered across our TV sets have been Billups, Rozier and Jones.
And who primarily made the attention-grabbing announcement?
Tr**p’s FBI Director, Kash Patel.
“The fraud is mind-boggling,” said Patel to reporters, saying that the incidents were a “criminal enterprise that envelops both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra.”
Again, the charges aren’t at issue, for if they did what’s been said, they deserve punishment.
However, we must dissect this through the lens of how this president operates.
