NBA Miami Heat’s Rozier and Trail Blazers’ Billups among dozens arrested in gambling probe tied to the mafia
Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA point guard led the Detroit Pistons to their third league title in 2004 as the NBA Finals MVP. Boston selected the former Colorado star with the third overall pick in 1997. The player known as Mr. Big Shot also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Denver Nuggets.
Billups, 49, is compiling a 117-212 record in his fifth season as Portland’s coach. The Trail Blazers opened the season with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota at home on Wednesday night.
Chauncey Billups, head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.Credit: access point
A game involving Rozier in question was played between the Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of the game and did not return that night due to a foot problem and did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was not in playoff contention, so Rozier being sidelined in the final games of the season didn’t seem all that unusual.
In the match played on March 23, Rozier finished the opening period with five points, four rebounds and two assists; It was a productive quarter, but it was well below its normal overall performance.
Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that when it became clear that Rozier would not return for the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, some bettors were outraged at sports betting that evening, with many taking to social media to say there was something “shady” going on with prop bets involving his stats from that night.
A prop is a type of betting that allows gamblers to place bets on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish a certain total of points, rebounds, assists, and more.
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