The NBA faces scrutiny amid recent revelations about the conduct of its players and coaches. Long suspected of manipulating outcomes and skirting the law, the basketball league has now rooted out the alleged perpetrators. 

During his 17-year NBA career, Portland Trail Blazers head coach and basketball Hall of Famer, Chauncey Billups, earned a reputation for his steely nerves. Nicknamed “Mr. Big Shot,” his game-saving plays propelled teams like the 2004-2007 Detroit Pistons and 2009 Denver Nuggets on long playoff runs. 

Through October and November, Billups and others around the league have gained notoriety for another kind of gall. The 2004 NBA champion, along with Miami Heat combo guard Terry Rozier, was arrested on Oct. 23 after the FBI exposed an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia. Participants bet illegally on their own games, telegraphing their predictions to co-conspirators before excusing themselves mid-game or intentionally underperforming to secure desired outcomes. 

This conspiracy is huge—up to 50 co-defendants, ranging from current and former NBA players to everyday civilians—and it spans back to at least 2019, with former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter being the most recent arrest before Rozier’s Oct. 23 apprehension. Curiously, the league investigated Rozier and other players in 2023 and determined that the former Celtics breakout star had done “nothing wrong.”

The news has eroded fans’ trust in the NBA and its investigative officials. State High senior Selim Alptekinoglu summed it up in a recent interview:

“I’m appalled to see that this behavior is allowed to go on in the league,” Alptekinoglu said.

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Gambling, organized or informal, is a perennial companion of sport. For reasons ranging from commercial to psychological, the two spheres are an inspired match. The adrenaline-fuelled ecstasy of sporting events, with their fierce competitive element and emotional voltage, makes them a natural outlet for anyone drawn to high stakes and uncertain odds.

This appeal goes both ways. For players, betting on games of poker or tennis brings a needed release from the demands of their careers. For fans, committing hard-won earnings to a team’s success gives a further edge to an experience already rife with tension and excitement. 

There are other reasons for the sports-gambling association. According to Rutgers University, the National Council on Problem Solving estimates that 5 million Americans suffer from a gambling disorder; a condition that breeds risk-driven behavior in its every conceivable form—from completing dares to mortgaging properties—and threatens the financial stability of anyone who suffers from it. 

For this reason, the gambling industry is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, and the NBA has repeatedly dipped its hand in the jar. 

Ever since the NBA became a lucrative business, bettors and betting agencies have descended upon it en masse, and members of the league have capitalized—sometimes against the law. Many of the offenses include referees. Sol Levy, in a three-year career officiating spanning the early 50s, was infamous for throwing contests to favored teams with a bevy of suspect foul calls. In 1953, he was given a three-year prison sentence after being indicted for match fixing, though a successful appeal a year later cut short his incarceration. 

In 2007, NBA ref Tim Donaghy was exposed for betting as much as $2,000 on his own games. After an investigation into the scheme, the league denied any wrongdoing on Donaghy’s part. Today, the public often questions referees, and contested results are chalked up to “bad refs.”

More recently, the NBA itself has embraced gambling through open business relationships. The commissioner of the league, a leading official akin to a president or CEO, is responsible for negotiating and upholding partnerships. The NBA’s current commissioner, Adam Silver, has headed the organization since taking over from his polarizing predecessor, David Stern, in 2014, and his eleven years as chief executive have been rocked by controversy and charges of corruption. 

A vocal proponent of gambling legalization, Silver wrote an Op-Ed to the New York Times in 2014 calling for bans on the practice to be withdrawn. Legislation granting this request, one echoed by many at the time, was passed in several jurisdictions shortly thereafter. 

In 2018, cornering the burgeoning market of online betting, Silver announced that the NBA had brokered a multi-year partnership with MGM Sports, a Vegas-based hospitality company. In the seven years since, the marriage and others like it have tossed up a storm. Players continually express irritation at venomous treatment from fans whose predictions about their performances go unmet, and many feel that basketball culture has been damaged beyond repair. 

Meanwhile, endless commercials and graphics advertising the association’s betting partners have flooded its platforms and live broadcasts, drawing backlash from fans and commentators alike.  That censure is part of a wider push by the players and the public, raising resistance against what many view as the NBA selling out those who watch and support its product. 

Against this unseemly history, the Rozier-Billups scandal reads as a near-inevitability. The inherent relationship between betting and sport, the NBA’s tendency to conceal and underregulate misconduct, and its aggressive, profit-driven courtship of gambling companies have created an ideal climate for corruption. 

“I think the league needs to tone down its promotion of gambling,” junior Andrew Christian observed. “I understand why it makes deals with these companies, but it’s hypocritical for them to advertise stuff to its fans and expect players not to jump in.”

Christian also asserted that players who break rules need to be penalized harshly: “I think Rozier getting dismissed from the Heat is a good step. If they’re not losing their jobs, it should be a huge salary cut.”

It remains to be seen what further details will be revealed, and what punishments lie in store for others implicated. What’s clear at this stage is that if the NBA hopes to regain the respect and trust of its audience, it will need to seriously address its role in incentivizing and covering up activity of this kind.