ESPN host Pat McAfee didn’t tiptoe around the biggest scandal to rock the sports world this week during Saturday’s College GameDay.
While discussing the College Football Playoff odds, the former NFL punter couldn’t resist making a joke about the FBI’s bombshell investigation into illegal gambling that took the NBA by storm earlier this week.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested on Thursday in relation to two separate cases linked to the FBI’s probe. Former Cleveland Cavaliers player Damon Jones was another high-profile name among the more than 30 arrests.
Billups, a former NBA champion, is accused of being recruited as a ‘face card’ in a Mafia-led illegal poker ring. Their job was to lure high rollers to the table, which would allegedly be rigged by the Mafia using manipulated card shufflers, x-ray tables and even contact lenses to identify certain cards.
Billups has denied the allegations through his attorney.
During a conversation on playoff odds for undefeated and one-loss college football teams with the College GameDay panel, McAfee mocked Billups’s alleged involvement in the busted gambling scheme.
Pat McAfee didn’t tiptoe around the NBA betting gambling scandal College GameDay
Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups leaves a courthouse in Portland, Oregon
‘Not a lot of people are betting on two percent chances unless you’re Chauncey Billups at a Chauncey Billups poker game,’ McAfee said from the show’s set in Nashville ahead of the Vanderbilt-Missouri game.
‘He was making some big bets allegedly on things that were just not likely, and everybody kind of knew they were rigged games.’
On Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced two separate cases involving ‘a wide sweeping criminal enterprise’ that involved a number of NBA stars.
In one case, 31 defendants, including Billups, were named in a series of allegedly rigged poker games. Authorities say victims have lost at least $7million.
In a separate but related case, Rozier and Jones ‘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.
Rozier’s arrest stems from an unexpected surge in bets placed on his statistics on a 2023 game. The veteran guard played just nine minutes, citing an injury.
The federal indictment went as far as accusing the veteran player of limping out of a game ‘prematurely’ so that his co-conspirators could cash in by predicting he would barely score any points.
NBA star Terry Rozier is pictured leaving court in a hoodie and colorful shorts on Thursday
The Miami Heat guard is accused of participating in an insider sports betting conspiracy
The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida resident who was an NBA player, an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier.
Defendants in the cases have been charged with wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery and illegal gambling. Lawyers who separately represent both Rozier and Billups have denied the allegations.
Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, called it ‘one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.’
‘My message to the defendants who´ve been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out,’ Nocella said.
