Billups’ return to the NBA becomes cloudier as Blazers hire new head coach

Since becoming the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021, Chauncey Billups has typically spent the final weeks of June intensely focused on the NBA Draft, a period in which the Blazers have added several key pieces for the overhaul of its young roster.

But Billups, who has been on leave from the club since October, was nowhere near the Blazers’ war room at this week’s NBA Draft. On Tuesday, the Blazers hired former Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori as the team’s new head coach. The hiring transpired after former Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter left this month to take the head coaching job with the Chicago Bulls.

For all intents and purposes, the hire of Nori effectively signals the end of Billups’ tenure with the Blazers. The Western Conference team, which reached the playoffs this year for the first time since 2021, placed Billups on leave following his arrest in a high-profile illegal poker case that made national headlines last fall. As the trial dates for the comprehensive case approach in the coming months, it is all but certain that Billups will not return to the league for the start of the 2026-27 season.

Developments in poker case

Billups, a five-time NBA All-Star, played for seven teams in his illustrious NBA career, including a brief stint with the New York Knicks in 2011. On 10 June, the Knicks erased a 29-point third-quarter deficit en route to the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. On the following afternoon, Billups returned to a Brooklyn federal courthouse for his latest status conference in the case.

Last October, a federal grand jury returned indictments against 31 defendants, including Billups, in the sweeping gambling case. Weeks later, he made an initial appearance at the Brooklyn courthouse where he pleaded not guilty to several felony charges. Billups, 49, is facing charges of money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy in connection with the poker scheme.

In total, the defendants defrauded poker victims of at least $7 million through a sophisticated scheme that involved multiple cheating devices, according to federal prosecutors. A series of so-called “cheating teams” utilised advanced wireless technologies, including x-ray devices and specialised contact lenses, to read the cards dealt in each hand, prosecutors stated in court filings.

While Billups has not been accused of cheating any of the victims directly, prosecutors have described him as acting as a “face card” in the scheme. In gambling parlance, face cards are celebrity participants used by organisers to lure unsuspecting victims into taking part in the underground poker games. Under the indictment, Billups allegedly received a direct wire transfer of $50,000 from a co-conpirator following an October 2020 game.

Outside of the courthouse, Billups’ attorney Marc Mukasey maintained his client’s innocence in response to questions from the media. If convicted, Billups is facing a maximum prison sentence of 20 years on each of the charges.

Pleas by co-conspirators

Ahead of this month’s status conference, prosecutors disclosed that six defendants in the case, US v. Aiello, have entered guilty pleas. One of the defendants, former NBA guard Damon Jones, also pleaded guilty in a parallel sports betting case.

Another defendant, Robert Stroud, allegedly provided a rigged shuffling machine used in a 2019 poker game attended by Billups. According to court filings obtained by iGB, Stroud and Billups participated in a Las Vegas poker game with at least three other co-defendants. At one point, Stroud and fellow defendant Sophia Wei discussed the possibility of deliberately losing several hands to quiet suspicions of potential collusion.

“The one guy on the end acted like he wanted Chauncey to have his money! He was star struck,” Stroud wrote in a text message dated 9 April 2019, according to prosecutors.

Besides Stroud, Saul Becher, Kenny Han, Osman Hoti and Seth Trustman have entered guilty pleas in recent weeks. Nicknamed “Albanian Bruce”, Hoti allegedly took part in a gunpoint robbery of the rigged shuffling machine. Trustman, an alleged associate of the Lucchese crime family, is accused of organising several underground poker games.

Assistant US Attorney Sean Sherman indicated at this month’s hearing that prosecutors have gathered approximately 259 hours of recordings during the discovery process. Separately, the government has produced 2.1 terabytes of data containing forensic extractions of electronic devices and iCloud accounts belonging to the defendants. For context, one terabyte of data can hold the equivalent of about 250 movies.

Next steps

Given the high volume of defendants in the case, prosecutors have divided the co-conspirators into three separate groups for trial. US District Judge Ramon Reyes indicated at the hearing that he would like to begin the trial on 2 November. Mukasey, Billups’ attorney, did not take exception with the trial date, but argued that it is “premature” to break the defendants into multiple groups.

Billups is listed by prosecutors in “Trial Group 3” with seven other defendants. Among the other defendants are Wei and Eric Earnest, who is also charged in the sports betting case. Joseph Lanni, a defendant in the first trial group, has since reached a deal with prosecutors to change his plea.

Lanni, an alleged captain in the Gambino crime family, is accused of receiving a cut of the illicit poker gains. Lanni is scheduled to appear for a change of plea hearing on 1 July. The next status conference for the case is scheduled for 10 September.