Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said the NBA isn’t doing enough to protect players from issues surrounding sports betting, speaking about the issue a day after a prominent player and coach were arrested for their alleged roles in a nationwide gambling scandal.
“They’re like, ‘You make X amount of money or X, Y and Z, you should be able to deal with all the extra negativity, the people approaching you about the parlays,'” Brown said Friday at Madison Square Garden before the Celtics face the New York Knicks. “It creates a negative discourse around the game and players when people have money involved. … It’s leading to situations that we can avoid if more conversations were had right now.”
Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were among dozens who were indicted Thursday from a pair of federal investigations. Rozier allegedly informed a friend that he would pull himself from a March 2023 game while he was with the Charlotte Hornets, with hundreds of thousands of dollars of bets made on Rozier under props for the contest.
While Billups’ charges are related to his alleged role in rigged poker games, he also matches the description of a co-conspirator who allegedly told a bettor in advance that a number of Trail Blazers starters would miss a March 2023 game.
Billups, Rozier among 34 arrested by FBI
Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were arrested as part of a pair of wide-ranging investigations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia, authorities announced.
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Attorneys for both Billups and Rozier said their clients dispute the allegations against them.
Brown, who is a vice president for the National Basketball Players Association, said he wants to help get to the bottom of what happened. But he also lamented the NBA not doing enough proactively or reactively to help players.
“I don’t think once, from my conversations with the union, that the NBA has been like, ‘How can we protect players more with the environment?'” Brown said. “There’s been little to no conversation around that. It’s all about, a lot of times, ‘How can we increase business and increase revenue?’ I don’t think we’re having enough conversations about what is the aftermath or the consequences that some of that stuff has.”
In response to Brown’s comments, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement that player and coach safety “has always been of critical importance” to the NBA and remains that way.
“Protecting the safety of players and coaches has always been of critical importance,” Bass said. “League security works with team officials and law enforcement to respond to any type of fan behavior that violates our code of conduct — whether that’s in our arenas or online. We have put safeguards in place, including social media monitoring, to track and mitigate any potential threats or safety risks. And we have increased communications to fans attending games to reinforce our code of conduct and emphasize that disrespectful and abusive behavior will not be tolerated.”
Brown and Rozier were teammates on the Celtics from 2016 to 2019. Brown said the allegations against Rozier were “not conducive of his character” but noted that the union has an investigative team to look into the matter.
“Obviously, if those guys are innocent, it’s not a great look for them publicly and media-wise, so we’ve got to make sure if they are exonerated, then their images are cleaned up,” Brown said. “But I think right now, just kind of getting all the information and getting to the bottom of it is the most important thing.”
