Woke to a family group chat.
Had to close my jaw and rub my eyes after what I read next.
Chauncey Billups, the greatest basketball player our state has ever known, was charged Thursday morning with participating in a series of rigged poker games organized by Mafia families that cheated victims out of at least $7.15 million.
Read that last sentence again. Billups arrested, gambling, cheating — almost a year to the day he was enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
There are few surprises anymore. This news left me stunned.
Billups was always a great player, dating back to when I covered him winning the state championship for George Washington High School as a sophomore in 1993. But he was also one of the good guys, someone easy to talk with about hoops or his favorite football players when he attended Broncos practice during training camp.
He was Colorado. The King of Park Hill. Mr. Big Shot. He stood for clutch, character, toughness. Mention his name, and proud smiles followed.
Trying to reconcile that man with the person who was arrested early Thursday morning and appeared in a Portland courtroom flanked by attorneys a few hours later remains jarring.
“I was shocked. I have been very sad. I am hoping that this is a misunderstanding, a minimal situation where he can find a safe place to go on to have a great life,” said former Nuggets coach George Karl of Billups, who led Denver to the Western Conference Finals in the 2008-09 season. “He is one of the best leaders, if not best leader, I have ever been around. Great with the team, great one-on-one. He was so mentally strong. I don’t know if I have cried today, but I have been really, really down.”
Billups is innocent until proven guilty. But this is serious stuff. He turned over his passport and his travel is restricted to Colorado and Oregon. His next court appearance is Nov. 24 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Between now and then, perhaps we will learn more. As is, the details of the indictment, coined “Operation Royal Flush,” are damning.
Billups is accused of being a “face card” that organized crime figures used to lure gamblers into two underground card games, in April 2019 and October 2020, taking advantage of participants who were attracted by his celebrity. He would then receive part of the criminal proceeds, the feds claim.
The games were deemed fixed because of rigged shuffling machines, decoy phones, card markers only visible through special glasses and “electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards,” the indictment states.
Why would Billups put himself in this position? Did he know the games traced back to the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno mafia crime families? Did they have leverage on him?
I am inclined to give Billups the benefit of the doubt based on the person I know. But nothing about this makes sense. His involvement. The risk.
Billups served as a game analyst for Los Angeles Clippers broadcasts during that time, and had made it known he wanted to work in the NBA as a coach or in a front office.
Why jeopardize that dream?
It was bad judgment at the very least to associate with people with nicknames like “Albanian Bruce,” “Flapper Poker” and “Spanish G.”
The second criminal case announced by the feds is more problematic, involving NBA players and coaches selling nonpublic information about games and players to gamblers who then used that inside information to place bets. Co-conspirator 8, per the indictment, told a bettor that several of the Trail Blazers’ best players would be sitting out against the Chicago Bulls on March 24, 2023. That conspirator has credentials that match Billups’ playing and coaching career.
As if tilted card games were not enough.
If proven, such insider trading will get Billups banned for life from the NBA. And likely prevent him from working at the high school or collegiate level.
“Shock. Dismay. Denial. Can’t be real,” said Altitude Sports’ Vic Lombardi, who covered Billups’ prep-to-pros career. “I am heartbroken.”
If the allegations are true, Billups has not just committed fraud, but betrayed those who trusted him the most, like the kids who have attended the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy since he joined forces with the former Regis College legend Lonnie Porter in 2006.
“I am speechless,” former CBS sports reporter Mark McIntosh said. “It flies in the face of everything I have known about Chauncey and his family.”
It is hard to come to terms with the accusations.
Athletes throwing away their careers because of drinking, drugs or gambling is nothing new.
Billups just did not fit the profile, especially at this point in his life. He would have been in his early 40s when he turned up at the card games, and 47 years old when he tipped off a bettor about the Blazers.
How could someone who made $106 million playing in the NBA put themselves in this position?
I asked Craig Carton. His rise and fall as a New York sports personality came about because of gambling. He was the subject of a documentary a few years ago after he lost everything. He served over a year in prison for securities and wire fraud before returning to the media and now hosts “The Craig Carton Show” on Fox.
“I don’t know if he is a compulsive gambler. But I know from my experience that compulsive gamblers lose total sight of the money,” Carton said. “It’s about the competition. I can only speak about myself. Losing was viewed as absurd, and I didn’t accept it. There is a point early on that you become aware of the risks financially. But you process it irrationally.
“When you get into the throes of it, you are willing to throw everything away. It ruins lives. It leaves such a wake. It’s why I tour high school and college campuses now, and why I was honored to speak at the NBA Rookie Symposium. I own the fact that I am an addict. There is shame and stigma that comes with it seven years later. But I don’t mind. I know that is who I am. I was blessed because I had a lot of good people in my corner who thought there was still a really good person inside. I will be indebted to them for the rest of my life.”
Billups deserves his day in court. But his days on the court could be over forever.
And it is tough to come to grips with that reality, given his legacy as a Colorado icon.
“Chauncey saved my job in Denver,” Karl said. “I went on to have four more good years. One regret I have is that when we traded Melo (Carmelo Anthony) that Chauncey had to be part of it. I begged them to do it without him. The admiration I have for Chauncey will never leave. This whole thing reminds me of when I went off to college. My dad said, ‘During our lifetime, we all eat humble pie. Just make sure it’s a small piece.’
“I just hope it is a small piece for Chauncey.”
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