Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups has been placed on unpaid leave by the NBA after being arrested as part of a federal investigation into an illegal poker operation with ties to the mafia.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, Billups has hired renowned defense attorney Marc Mukaskey to represent him.
As Amick writes, Mukasky is a former prosecutor from New York who is well-known for taking on high-profile white-collar cases, including acting as an attorney in recent years for U.S. President Donald Trump. Mukasky is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Amick adds.
Billups was arraigned last week in federal court on one count of wire-fraud conspiracy and one count of money-laundering conspiracy. His next next court date is November 24 in Brooklyn, New York.
The attorney who represented Billups at last week’s arraignment in Portland said the 49-year-old disputes the charges.
Former NBA big man Tiago Splitter is serving as Portland’s interim head coach while Billups’ legal situation plays out.
Here’s more on Billups:
- While he wasn’t charged or named in the separate but related illegal sports betting case that resulted in the arrest of Terry Rozier, Billups fits the description of Co-Conspirator 8, who allegedly tipped of Eric “Spook” Earnest that the Blazers would go into tank mode ahead of a game on March 24, 2023. Carson Kessler and Nathan Fenno of The Athletic take a look at how Billups may have gotten to know Earnest, who is one of three people indicted in both cases. As the authors note, the 53-year-old Earnest had multiple extended stints in prison after pleading guilty to or being found guilty of various felony charges in unrelated legal cases.
- People around the Blazers and the league have been stunned by Billups’ indictment, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. One such person is Billups’ former head coach with the Pistons, Larry Brown, who has been texting the Hall-of-Fame guard nearly every day over the past week. “He would be one of the last people I would think about involving himself with bad people,” Brown told ESPN. “If you talked to anybody that was involved with Chauncey, that spent time with him and knew his family, knew his kids, I think they’d be saying the same thing.” An unnamed associate whom Shelburne describes as close to Billups said they “didn’t even know” Billups gambled and that they’re concerned for the coach’s well being. “The thing that scares me for Chauncey is that he’s dealing with these mob guys,” the person said. “If this is true, if he set people up. … It could get nasty.”
- Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue refers to Billups as his best friend and the two have known each other since they were teenagers. Lue says he has spoken to Billups since he was indicted, as Shelburne relays. “When you’ve known somebody so long, you can just tell by their voice — if he’s OK,” Lue said. “Like I said, he’s confident in what’s going on. The toughest part just for him, just like his family going through with his daughters. But other than that, he’s really confident about the situation. So just hearing his voice, I can just see that he’s OK. So that was good to hear.”