The NBA Gambling Scandal Involves a former UH player

On Thursday, the FBI formally announced the arrests of multiple people including one former NBA and University of Houston player (Damon Jones), one current NBA player (Terry Rozier) and one current NBA coach (Chauncey Billups) related to a pair of gambling schemes that involved organized crime, sports prop bets and an elaborate ring of illicit poker games in New York City.

It was an absolute bombshell smack dab in the middle of opening week for the Association, which had already seen some fantastic games including an opening night double-overtime thriller between the Thunder and Rockets.

Clearly, we have only scratched the surface of what is to come from these allegations and there will be huge ramifications for the NBA and other professional and college sports. But, honestly, we should have seen this coming.

For decades, even discussing gambling was verboten in pro sports leagues. Jimmy “The Greek,” the famous betting guru, wasn’t even allowed to say what betting lines were for games. As recently as a decade ago, players like Tony Romo were forbidden from participating in fantasy sports conventions. Putting a team in Las Vegas? You must be crazy.

Fast forward a few years and billions of dollars later, things have radically changed. There are multiple teams in Las Vegas including the Raiders (NFL), the Aces (WNBA), and the Golden Knights (NHL). Soon, the former Oakland A’s will join them.

More critically, casinos, gambling outfits and fantasy sports have invested millions and millions into pro and college sports advertising and sponsorships. There are in-house sports books in stadiums across multiple leagues.

It has become so widespread that commentators tell fans the betting lines and go over potential prop bets during pregame shows. There are entire radio shows and podcasts dedicated to fantasy sports and wagering. It has permeated every aspect of sports. Leagues don’t just tolerate it, they embrace it and, more importantly, profit from it to the tune of billions of dollars in revenue.

And the prop bets, which used to be a funny sideshow — over/under on the length of the Super Bowl National Anthem performance — are now served up on screen in real time during games. Should anyone be remotely surprised players have attempted to leverage that into a payday for themselves and others?

In this specific case, Rozier was allegedly changing how he played to benefit himself and others. They would bet the under on specific stats of his games like how many minutes he played in a game or the number of points he had, and he would oblige with his on-court performance. According to the charges, he purposefully took himself out of games and missed shots to manipulate prop bet lines.

With the pervasiveness of gambling in sport, it’s remarkable it hasn’t happened with greater frequency, or at least the getting caught part. It would be, quite frankly, a shock if it weren’t happening far more often than we know.

Fans love conspiracy theories when it comes to officiating or “rigged” draft lotteries. They will decry cheating and demand retribution against teams that gamed the system. But, perhaps the biggest and most insidious threat to sports is the betting many of us partake in ourselves. Fans literally threaten the lives of players and coaches for making decisions that impact their wagers, something that is reported on with regularity. Why would we think those players and coaches are immune to the same influences that drive us to place bets?

We all would like to believe this will be some kind of wake up call for everyone. Leagues will face up to a growing problem in their ranks and see the detriment it has on not just sports in general, but the fans that support them. We could hope for some kind of reckoning that leads us back to a time when gambling lines weren’t served up to us alongside box scores.

But, that would require owners, players, broadcasters and even fans giving up the billions of dollars of investments that come from an industry that went from illegal and immoral to frowned upon but tolerated to accepted and lauded in this century. No one is doing that. What incentive do they have?

And whatever spin they use to redirect us back to business as usual, this is going to continue and likely get worse. The current NBA scandal is almost certainly just the tip of an enormous iceberg and it feels like we’re all just floating around in the Titanic.

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