Shaquille O’Neal pulled no punches as he weighed in on the FBI investigation into a Mafia-led illegal sports betting operation that has shocked the nation.
The NBA was plunged into chaos on Thursday – just two days into the new season – after the Feds launched a series of overnight arrests that saw current star Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups detained.
Rozier is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information. Billups is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by Mafia families.
Former Cleveland Cavaliers player Damon Jones is another high-profile name among 34 arrests made in the FBI’s investigation, and he is alleged to be involved in both the poker investigation and a separate sports betting case.
The stunning news sent shockwaves throughout the basketball community and now NBA legend O’Neal has offered his take on the matter.
Speaking on ESPN’s ‘Inside the NBA’ on Thursday night, the former Los Angeles Lakers star said: I know Chauncey and I know Damon [Jones] very well.
Shaquille O’Neal weighed in on the FBI investigation into Mafia-led illegal sports betting
Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups (left) and Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier (right) were arrested on Thursday as part of an FBI sports gambling probe
‘I’m ashamed that those guys would put their families and their careers in jeopardy. If you’re making $9million, how much more do you need?
‘Especially if you know that, if you get caught you could do jail time, lose your career [and] put a bad image on yourself, your family and the NBA.
‘They dropped the ball. You never want to have your name involved in that when you know the letter of the law’.
‘Innocent until proven guilty, but usually when the FBI has something, they have you. They’ll wait two, three, four, five years, but when they come knocking on your door, they have something’.
As the discussion continued, Kenny Smith claimed: ‘You have to realize gambling is an addiction, so the addiction of it is what makes you make illogical decisions’.
However, co-analyst Charles Barkley fired back: ‘This has nothing to do with a gambling addiction. This ain’t got nothing to do with addiction.
‘These dudes are stupid. You can’t, under no circumstances, fix basketball games. Under no circumstances. Rozier makes $26 million.
‘Him giving people information or taking himself out of games, how much is he going to benefit taking himself out of games to hit unders? He’s making $26 million.’
Kenny Smith (left) and Charles Barkley (right) clashed over the matter on ‘Inside the NBA’
O’Neal’s former teammate, Damon Jones, was also arrested in relation to the investigation
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the indictments in a press conference on Thursday
On Thursday afternoon, Miami Heat veteran Rozier appeared in federal court in Orlando, Florida. He was seen leaving the courthouse through a side door, having been released from custody following his arraignment.
A few hours later, ex-Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey was seen outside a courthouse in Portland, Oregon. Both men face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges. They have both been placed on ‘immediate leave’ by the NBA.
The FBI claims it uncovered a decades-long Mafia-led poker ring that is allegedly tied to the Gambino, Bonanno and Genovese crime families, and saw rigged games take place in Manhattan, the Hamptons and Las Vegas, according to prosecutors.
The alleged scheme involved professional athletes, including Billups, being used as ‘face cards’ to attract victims to the table where high-tech methods were used by the Mafia to rig the games, says the indictment.
In Thursday’s press conference, United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. outlined the breathtaking methods used by the group to rig games.
It is alleged that New York’s notorious crime families would use X-ray tables to tilt games in their favor and wear special high-tech contact lenses to read pre-marked cards.
He said in a press conference on Thursday: ‘The defendants used a variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies, some of which were provided by other defendants in exchange for a share of the profits from the scheme.
‘They used off the shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand and relay that information to an off-site operator.
Billups, pictured with his wife Piper Riley, is in his fifth year of coaching Portland
The Mafia allegedly used X-ray tables and high-tech contact lenses to read people’s cards
‘The off-side operator sent the information via cellphone back to a co-conspirator at the table, who was known as ‘the quarterback’, and they secretly signaled the information they had received to others at the table and together they used that information in order to win the games and cheat their victims.
‘Defendants used other cheating technologies, such as poker chip tray analyzers – which is a poker chip try that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera – special contact lenses or glasses that could read pre-marked cards and an X-ray table that could read cards faced down on the table.’
Meanwhile, Miami Heat star Rozier and former Cavaliers player and assistant coach Jones have been charged in a separate but related case, which accuses them of turning professional basketball into a criminal sports betting operation.
It is alleged that the teams whose games were affected by the sports gambling scheme are the Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, Toronto Raptors, and Portland Trail Blazers.
According to the indictment, released on Thursday morning, Rozier and other defendants ‘had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches’ that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances.
It is alleged they provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of the betting profits.
