Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups leaves the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse after his arraignment on October 23, 2025 in Portland, Oregon.
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Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups appears to be an anonymous co-conspirator identified in a criminal indictment for allegedly telling another man the team planned to intentionally lose a game against the Chicago Bulls in March 2023 to improve the Trail Blazers’ chances of getting a better pick in the NBA draft.
Details in the indictment describing the NBA player and coaching careers of “Conspirator 8” who leaked plans to ruin NBA games match those of Billups, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The tipped man then shared that information with another man, who along with several others placed bets totaling about $100,000 on the Trail Blazers losing the game at a legal online bookmaker, the indictment alleges.
The Blazers lost the game 124-96 because their four leading scorers per game that season were unavailable.
The indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, does not name Billups, who has not been charged in the case.
But he was arrested Thursday in Portland on separate federal charges in Brooklyn. The indictment accuses Mafia members of participating in a conspiracy to defraud unwitting players of underground poker games out of millions of dollars using high-tech cheating devices.
Billups was immediately placed on administrative leave by the NBA and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case.
A separate indictment related to sports betting states that Co-conspirator 8 is an “Oregon resident” who “was an NBA player from approximately 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021.”
Billups was a first-round pick by the Boston Celtics in 1997. He retired in 2014 as a player with the Detroit Pistons. Billups became Portland’s head coach in 2021.
#2 Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat dribbles the ball during the second half of a preseason game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Caseya Center on October 17, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
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Billups’ lawyers and representatives did not immediately respond to CNBC on Friday when asked if Billups was one of the eight co-conspirators in the sports betting indictment.
However, Billups’ attorney Chris Haywood, in a statement to NBC News, denied the indictment’s suggestion that Billups told anyone of the Trail Blazers’ plan to spoil the game.
“Chaucey Billups has never, and never will, bet on a basketball game, provide inside information, or sacrifice the credibility of a team or league, because that would tarnish the game to which he has devoted his entire life,” Haywood told NBC.
Haywood on Thursday denied any wrongdoing by Billups in the poker-related charges.
“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows that he is a man of integrity. A man of integrity does not cheat or deceive others,” Haywood said that day.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is condemning is to believe that he is putting his Hall of Fame legacy, reputation, and freedom at risk,” Haywood said. “He wasn’t going to jeopardize them for anything, let alone a card game.”
The sports betting indictment accuses six people, including Miami Heat star Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones, of gambling on confidential information leaked about NBA players’ injuries and other details.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, told CNBC on Thursday that prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of an astonishingly unreliable source rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing.”
One of the players Jones is accused of leaking, but not accused of wrongdoing, is believed to be Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. The indictment includes charges related to Jones and James’ careers as teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers, as well as details about James’ injury in the game that Jones allegedly leaked to the public.
Provided by: U.S. District Court
According to the indictment, the Trail Blazers’ record against the Bulls on March 24, 2023 was a dismal 32-40.
“And the team was eliminated from playoff contention with 10 games remaining in the season,” the indictment states.
“Before the game on March 24, Co-conspirator 8 told Defendant Eric Earnest that he intended to tank (i.e., intentionally lose) to increase the Trail Blazers’ chances of obtaining a better draft pick in the upcoming NBA Draft,” the indictment alleges.
Co-conspirator 8 also allegedly told Earnest that “several of the Trail Blazers’ best players, including Player 1, whose identity was known to the grand jury, would not play in the March 24th game before this news was publicly announced,” the indictment states.
Provided by: U.S. District Court
According to the indictment, Ernest, one of the people charged in the case, allegedly provided information about the Trail Blazers to co-defendant Marveth Fairey “in order for Mr. Fairey to place illegal bets on games and share the proceeds with Mr. Earnest.”
According to the indictment, Fairley promised to pay Earnest $5,000 if his bet on the Portland game was successful.
The indictment says Fairley, co-defendant Shane Hennen and other unidentified co-conspirators placed or caused multiple bets that the Trail Blazers would lose.
The indictment alleges that Fairley, Hennen and others placed bets totaling approximately $100,000 before Portland’s key players were publicly ruled out, and that the betting odds and point spreads for the games changed after the Trail Blazers disclosed injuries to key players.
The Trail Blazers finished the 2022-23 season in 13th place in the NBA Western Conference with a record of 33 wins and 49 losses.
The team selected guard Scoot Henderson with the third pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
In addition to being charged in the gambling indictment, Ernest and Hennen are also indicted along with Billups and Damon Jones in a poker-related indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn.
CNBC has reached out to Hennen’s attorney for comment. Information about Mr. Fairley and Mr. Ernest’s attorneys was not available from the public criminal docket.
