NEW YORK — Anfernee Simons and Jaylen Brown expressed confusion and frustration over the sprawling gambling-related arrests that struck the NBA world on Thursday afternoon. Simons’ former head coach Chauncey Billups from the Trail Blazers and Brown’s former Celtics teammate Terry Rozier faced charges late this week on alleged offenses related to rigged poker games and sharing information about NBA games. Brown blamed the gambling climate around sports and lack of conversations about its pitfalls for a situation that now challenges the integrity of the game.
“I think a lot more could’ve been done to help players or prepare players. Even the aftermath, I don’t think much care or attention to detail goes into it, where you make X amount of money or X, Y, Z, you should be able to deal with all the extra negativity, the people approaching you about parlays,” Brown said. “It creates a negative discourse around the game and players when people have money involved. Obviously, it’s a part of it, but definitely some of the experiences … it’s leading to situations that we can avoid if more conversations were had right now.”
Brown, who’s a vice president with the NBA’s players association, said Rozier’s arrest doesn’t reflect his character and they’ll figure out what the truth is through the legal process and crisis management team on the NBA union side. The league sidelined Billups and Rozier, now a member of the Heat, indefinitely on Thursday. He said they’ll focus on exonerating both if they’re innocent, but they’re focused on gathering all the information for now. Rozier’s arrest, specifically, addresses a 2023 game during his time with Charlotte that drew unusual betting activity before Rozier exited the game with a foot injury. The NBA investigated and later cleared Rozier over it.
The league this week in a statement cited that it does not have the same investigative tools as prosecutors do, and a sweeping indictment targeted Billups’ activity non-basketball activity, Rozier exiting his game and former NBA veteran Damon Jones’ allegedly selling of information about LeBron James’ status. The indictments also referred to a co-conspirator who closely matches Billups’ description as having allegedly shared information about the Trail Blazers’ plans to tank. Simons, who called the arrest unfortunate after playing for Portland last year, said he never heard any decision by the team up hold him out of games for tanking.
“Not to my knowledge,” Simons said. “We get told to play. We’re not in charge of the minutes, so you just play until you come out of the game or don’t play. It was really that simple. I don’t think I was told anything in general.”
Simons added that teams and the league have reiterated its gambling rules through the various controversies that emerged across recent seasons. Jontay Porter, a former Raptors two-way big man, plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in 2024 following an investigation into his gambling-related activity as a player. The NBA also banned him for life. Former Pistons guard Malik Beasley, who was also cleared by the league, remains under investigation by the federal government for allegedly gambling on NBA games.
The incidents come at a time where increasing numbers of players have discussed the climate created by legalized gambling, including vitriol players receive for not reaching their statistical thresholds for fans to win their bets. Adam Silver addressed that in a recent interview while defending the guard-rails that legalization has created, alongside acknowledging that there should be more regulation on advertisement, player props and cited the league’s own response to the Porter situation, limiting access to two-way prop bets.
Brown, however, criticized the league’s rollout of legalized gambling, saying that they didn’t do enough to protect players and that he doesn’t believe it benefits them enough. He also added that there haven’t been follow-up conversations about the impact of it on them and the game, and instead, the union and league have focused too much on making more money.
“I don’t think once, from my conversations with the union or the NBA, has been ‘how can we protect players with the environment?’ There has been little to no conversation about that. A lot of the time (it’s) ‘how can we increase business and increase revenue?’ And I’m not sure if we’re having enough conversations about, what’s the aftermath or the consequences some of that stuff has?”
