Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested in an FBI raid in the early hours of Thursday morning after federal investigators uncovered his alleged links to a decades-long Mafia-led gambling ring.
Billups, 49, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, was detained at his home in Oregon in a case related to an illegal poker operation linked with the Mafia.
The operation is allegedly tied to the Gambino, Bonanno and Genovese crime families, and saw rigged games take place in Manhattan, the Hamptons and Las Vegas.
Billups, who won a championship with the Detroit Pistons, earned $107million during his 17 years in the NBA. He reportedly banked a further $4.7m per season as the head coach in Portland, according to Oregon Live.
And the stunned basketball world has since been left questioning why the NBA legend would risk everything to involve himself in the fraudulent scheme.
The former NBA champion appears to lead a charmed life with his wife, Piper, and their three daughters.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, pictured with his wife Piper, was arrested on Thursday morning as part of an FBI investigation into illegal gambling
Billups, 49, married Piper in 2003 with the couple renewing their vows in Las Vegas in 2013
They share three daughters – Cydney (left) Ciara (second right) and Cenaiya (right)
Despite her husband’s continued presence in the spotlight – for the good and, now, the bad – Piper has preferred to keep a low profile.
However, the couple, who tied the knot in 2003, have made no secret of their lavish lifestyle.
Billups has frequently gushed over his wife in adoring social media posts on Instagram with one previous photo showing Piper wearing a stack of three Cartier Love bracelets, which can cost between $5,000 and a staggering $50,000.
The couple celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary with an extravagant vow renewal on the Las Vegas strip in 2013.
The opulent weekend is said to have begun with a delicious meal at the MGM’s Pearl restaurant, followed by a trip the Boom Box Room at the premiere Marquee Club in the ultra modern Cosmopolitan Hotel.
The ceremony took place overlooking the lake on the grounds of Lotus Court as violinist Bobby Yang serenaded the guests.
All three of Billups’ daughters – Cydney, Ciara and Cenaiya – were in attendance.
The trio also haven’t shied away from living a decadent lifestyle, which is splashed across their social media profiles.
Cydney, who at 27 is the eldest of Billups’ children, regularly posts stunning photos
She is also embedded in the NBA as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves organization
The sisters frequently post photos of their lavish lifestyle, including luxury vacations
Cydney, who at 27 is the eldest of Billups’ children, is also embedded in the NBA world.
She is the Manager of Team and Player Services for the Minnesota Timberwolves, after previously working as a coordinator of Team Operations/Family Services for the Milwaukee Bucks.
She played soccer at the University of Texas, where she earned bachelor and masters degrees in Sports Management.
Meanwhile, her sister, Ciara, 24, has also established a career in sports, working as a coordinator for Klutch Sports Group, Rich Paul’s agency.
She joined the agency after attending the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance where she studied a Sports Business and Management as her minor.
Both sisters featured a range of luxury vacations on their Instagram profiles, including family trips to Japan and the Amalfi Coast.
They also showed off getaways to Las Vegas and Dubai, as well as snaps of Cydney on a yacht in Miami.
Cydney was also captured previously attending the ESPYs awards alongside Jrue Holiday, a player on her father’s Trail Blazers team, and his wife, Lauren.
Cydney is pictured with Trail Blazers tsar Jrue Holiday and his wife at the ESPYs
She also previously shared a stunning snap from a yacht in Miami
The sisters are regularly seen clutching designer handbags, including Prada and Chael
Ciara, meanwhile, celebrated attending a number of high-profile sporting events, including the NBA All-Star weekend and the Super Bowl in 2024.
Both daughters were frequently seen clutching designer handbags from luxury fashion houses, including Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
Cenaiya, the youngest daughter, has kept her personal life more private, like her mother.
She is a sophomore at Howard University majoring in Business Management Major Like her famous father and older sisters, she has also shown a penchant for sport as a member of the school’s track team.
All three sisters have switched their profiles to private in the wake of their father’s arrest.
Billups was used by members of La Cosa Nostra crime families as one of the ‘face cards’ – professional athletes – to lure victims to the table. The victims were allegedly cheated out of $7million
Chris Heywood, an attorney for Billups, told ESPN on Thursday night that his client is a ‘man of integrity’ who intends to fight the allegations against him.
‘Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others,’ Heywood said.
‘To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.’
The former NBA champion was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year
His daughters’ Instagram profiles frequently feature stunning getaways and backdrops
Yet 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.
‘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 Terry Rozier and former Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones have been charged in a separate but related case, which accuses them of turning professional basketball into a criminal sports betting operation.
