In what felt like a throwback to the early 20th century, the FBI announced on Thursday that current and former NBA stars had been arrested in a gambling sting that involved betting on games, and the actual Mafia.

There are actually two separate investigations that resulted in mutiple arrests, and only one case involves the Mafia. Current Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and former star Damon Jones were arrested for their alleged involvement in this case.

Federal authorities launched an investigation, dubbed Operation Zhen Diagram, into a nationwide gambling ring allegedly involving members of the La Cosa Nostra crime families who allegedly defrauded unwitting victims of millions.

The FBI said that the proceeds of the activity were allegedly laundered by members of the ring and at some points were converted into cryptocurrency to avoid being detected by law enforcement.

The FBI said a confidential source recorded more than 3,000 phone calls and meetings with the targets of its investigation. The source introduced undercover agents to the targets and participated in a rigged poker game.

Officials said the poker games involved cheating devices such as rigged shuffling devices and X-ray tables.

Billups was arrested as part of the illegal poker takedown. (United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph) Nocella said the alleged schemers targeted victims known as “fish” who lured victims by giving them the chance to play alongside former pro athletes known as “face cards.” He said Billups and Jones were dubbed as a “face card” by the schemers.

Nocella said the “fish” didn’t know that the “face cards” were in on the scam.

The Mafia rigging a poker game and getting famous NBA names involved to keep the scam going sounds like the plot of a movie, but it doesn’t have anything to do directly with the NBA itself as far as game play or results. That would be the other investigation, called Operation Nothing But Net, which involves current player Terry Rozier.

Nocella said the schemers were given non-public information about who would be sitting out future games or when they would be pulling themselves out early for injuries or illnesses. Jontay Porter, a former Toronto Raptors, received a lifetime ban for the NBA and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a gambling scheme last year.

“In one instance they got their information by threatening a current player, Porter, because of his preexisting gambling debts,” Nocella said. “Defendants used this information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets – mostly in the form of prop bets on individual player performance.

“The defendants relied on a network of straw bettors to place the maximum amount of bets to increase their potential profits. Most of these bets succeeded and the intended losses were in the millions of dollars. The defendants then laundered their illegal winnings in various ways.”

“The indictment details specific examples where the defendants profited from illegal gambling and illegal betting on various NBA games about the performance of players on, among other things, the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto (Raptors).

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Rozier faked an injury to leave a March 23, 2023, game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier was alleged to have told co-defendant Deniro Laster that he would take himself out of the game so Laster can bet on it.

Interestingly, Damon Jones was indicted in both cases, which would seem to signal that he had a serious problem with gambling. The poker game rigging is alleged to have begun in 2019, and the “prop bets” scandal apparently began sometime in December 2022. Both investigations began under the Biden DOJ, despite the hysteria by Stephen A. Smith, who accused President Trump of going after the NBA.

“You know what world we’re living in in terms of politics. How many times with one incident after another? Trump is coming,” Smith said. “He’s coming. I’m going to say it on national television again. … Remember, Trump has a long, long history connected to the world of sports because he had those casinos. Where do you think those folks were coming half the time? I’m not talking about the individuals. I’m talking about the culture.

“Don’t be surprised if the WNBA is next on his list. Because when you got all of these protesters that have been going out there and people who have been protesting against him and what have you, this man is coming. He’s coming. And I’ve been saying it for a long time. To me, this is the latest nugget of evidence that we’re talking about right here. It’s not to question the legitimacy of the case. We don’t know. But anybody that’s been around him, anybody that has talked to him, anybody that has seen his reactions from the sports leagues and the positions that people have taken, they are not surprised at what’s going on today.”

Smith said athletes have gotten in trouble with law enforcement before, but he hasn’t seen the FBI director get involved or hold a press conference about investigations.

“It’s not coincidental. It’s not an accident. It’s a statement. And it’s a warning that more is coming, and that’s what they’re saying here. … In (Trump’s) eyes, folks tried to throw him in jail. In his eyes, he’s innocent, and they tried to put me behind bars. ‘I’m getting everybody.’ He’s not playing.”

"Trump is coming. He's coming…Anybody that has seen his reactions from the sports leagues and the positions that people have taken, they are not surprised at what's going on today…this is just the tip of the iceberg" – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/gngy9qbPIG

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 23, 2025

FBI Director Kash Patel responded to Smith’s absolutely unhinged reaction.

“I’m the FBI director. I decide which arrest to conduct and which not to conduct,” Patel told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” Thursday.

“That may be the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard out of anyone in modern history. And I live most of my time in Washington, DC,” he railed against Smith’s suggestion.

“It’s right up there with Adam Schiff. We arrest people for crimes,” he added.

https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1981543220065493283
But up until this point, no one had yet gotten a statement from Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner. He finally was cornered on Friday evening by a reporter, and Skinny Uncle Fester was forced to give an extremely milquetoast statement.

“My initial reaction was I was deeply disturbed,” Silver said in an interview during the Amazon Prime Video broadcast of the New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics game Friday. “There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition. I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting.

“I apologize to our fans that we are all dealing with this situation.”

Silver added the NBA investigated and found no reason to sanction Rozier when his case opened in March 2023 as a member of the Charlotte Hornets, and sports books alerted the NBA to irregular patterns involving Rozier’s “prop bets.”

“We frankly couldn’t find anything,” Silver said. “Terry at the time cooperated. He gave the league office his phone. He sat down for an interview. And we ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence despite that aberrational behavior to move forward.

“He still hasn’t been convicted of anything, in fairness to Terry. Obviously, it doesn’t look good. But he’s now been put on administrative leave. There’s a balance here of protecting people’s rights and investigating.”

Adam Silver is not exactly a charismatic or strong commissioner, as we saw years ago when the NBA bent the knee to the Chinese Communist Party in order to make sure that those sweet, sweet Chinese dollars kept coming. Human rights violations? What human rights violations? So it’s pretty obvious that Silver is weak, and his comments that the FBI could get more information about the gambling because “they can arrest people” is a pretty lame-ass excuse. The NBA didn’t want there to be a prop bet gambling problem, so once Jontay Porter was banned back in April 2024, they clearly didn’t want to know about any other players possibly betting on games. And Porter was allegedly being blackmailed for information by the Rozier group! If it happens to be discovered that Porter ratted out Rozier, and the NBA looked the other way in order to sweep everything else under the rug, Adam Silver could find himself being indicted. And he is definitely not out of the woods yet, as the House Commerce Committee has asked Silver some very pointed questions – and they want answers.

The allegations uncovered this week on illegal gambling and the integrity of sport within the NBA raises serious concerns.@HouseCommerce Republicans and Democrats wrote to NBA Commissioner Silver requesting a briefing on these allegations and what actions need to be taken to…

— Energy and Commerce Committee (@HouseCommerce) October 24, 2025

The NBA opened itself to legal betting in 2018, after the Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports betting and made it a state issue. Adam Silver was a huge proponent of allowing legal betting, but apparently there are not strong enough guardrails in place to keep players, coaches, and those with insider information from using it. Players and coaches made comments in 2024 that they were being harassed by those gambling on games, and now we are seeing the logical end results: players being accused of making easy money by rigging the game itself.

Adam Silver and the NBA have a gigantic mess on their hands, and it remains to be seen what the commissioner knew, when he knew it, and what he plans on doing about it now.

Featured image via Pixabay, Pixabay license