Attorney for Chauncey Billups refutes connection to mafia, says client is ‘man of integrity’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The attorney representing Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups released a statement on Thursday night after the NBA Hall of Famer was arrested and accused of rigging poker games for the mafia.

As first reported by ESPN, Billups’s lawyer Chris Heywood says that Billups will fight the charges.

“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others. 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,” Heywood said. “Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to. Chauncey Billups has never backed down. He does not plan to do so now. He will fight these allegations with the same tenacity that marked his 28-year career. We look forward to our day in court.”

In a press conference with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice on Thursday morning, officials shared information about two federal investigations, known as “Operation Nothing But Bet” and “Operation Zen Diagram,” which involved cheating people out of tens of millions of dollars through both rigged sports betting and a rigged poker scheme.

Billups has been placed on immediate leave from his position as the Portland Trail Blazers’ head coach. He appeared in an Oregon federal court Thursday afternoon, where he was released on conditions pending his upcoming indictment in New York.

According to court documents, in one specific instance, an unnamed co-conspirator provided information about a Portland Trail Blazers game on March 24, 2023.

Ahead of that game, the documents said that the co-conspirator told Eric Earnest, one of the named suspects in the sports betting scheme, that the Blazers would tank the game against the Chicago Bulls to get a better draft pick. The information was shared ahead of the announcement that several of the Blazers’ best players would not be playing in the game.

The documents say the unnamed co-conspirator is an Oregon resident who played for the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and has been a coach since 2021.

Billups retired as a player in 2014 and began coaching the Blazers in 2021.