The NBA gambling scandal, announced in a FBI press conference Thursday, has not been kind to former Boston Celtics players. Three were indicted as part of separate probes into an insider-betting scheme, and illegal poker operation.
On Friday, a fourth former Celtic, this one the biggest name of all and a certified Boston legend, was connected to the scandal in a new report by independent investigative journalist Pablo Torre.
“A number of former pro athletes played at private poker games organized by those indicted by the DOJ in ‘Operation Royal Flush,’” Torre reported on Friday morning. “One of them â according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of a game that took place in 2019 â was Kevin Garnett.”
It is important to note that Garnett has not been accused of illegal acts, and has not been arrested or indicted. The report linking him to the poker operation is the result of a journalistic investigation, not a law enforcement operation.
Garnett was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.
GettyCeltics center Kevin Garnett in action.
Garnett a ‘Big Three’ Celtics Legend
A 15-time All-Star, Garnett was selected fifth overall in the 1995 NBA draft, without ever playing college basketball. The Minnesota Timberwolves took Garnett out of high school at Farragut Career Academy in Chicago.
On July 31, 2007, the Timberwolves traded Garnett to the Celtics getting five players and two future first-round draft picks in return. But for Boston the trade was more than worth it.
Along with Ray Allen, another trade acquisition who has since been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and Boston’s lone home-grown superstar at the time, Paul Pierce â also now a Hall of Famer â Garnett completed the Celtics’ “Big Three.”
Led by Garnett, Allen and Pierce, the Celtics won the 2008 NBA Championship, then returned to the Finals in 2010 only to lose in seven games to the Los Angeles Lakers â the same team they had defeated two years earlier.
Former Celtic Billups Charged in Poker Scam
The poker games mentioned by Torre in his Friday report were part of an organized crime racket operated by known underworld Mafia figures, according to the FBI, and reported by The New York Times.
According to the indictments, former Celtics star Chauncey Billups â who was drafted No.3 overall by Boston in 1997 but traded to the Toronto Raptors after playing just 51 games â took part in the private games as a lure to unsuspecting gamblers who were attracted by the chance to play poker with an NBA legend.
The victims were then fleeced out of their cash using an elaborate, high-tech cheating scheme, according to the FBI.
Billups was inducted into the Hall of Fame just last year, and until his suspension yesterday had been head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021.
If Torre’s report is accurate, it remains unclear whether Garnett was in on the poker scam, or was a victim of it.
2 Other Ex-Celtics Indicted
Another former Celtic, Terry Rozier, was indicted as part of an insider-betting scheme in which, according to the FBI allegations as reported by the Associated Press, he informed a friend that in a specific game, he would guarantee that his point total would be under the number predicted for him by sportsbooks.
That allowed the friend and others to place bets on the “under” for Rozier, knowing in advance that they would win.
Rozier was a Celtics first-round pick in 2016 and played four seasons in Boston before he, too, was traded.
A fourth former Celtic, Damon Jones who played just 13 games for Boston in the 1998-1999 season, was one of three people indicted in connection with both the poker and insider-betting schemes, according to the Times report.
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