{"id":4462,"date":"2025-11-01T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T05:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/?p=4462"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:30:36","slug":"busted-how-nba-tipoff-week-was-spoiled-by-a-series-of-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/4462\/sports\/busted-how-nba-tipoff-week-was-spoiled-by-a-series-of-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"Busted – How NBA Tipoff Week Was Spoiled by a Series of Arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in years, it seemed like Portland Trail Blazers fans finally had something to look forward to. The team\u2019s young and inexperienced core seemingly was finally starting to bloom near the end of the 2024-2025 season. The team managed to finish with a solid 36-46 record, their highest mark since the 2020 NBA season, and 15 wins above their abysmal 2023-2024 season. Over the offseason, the team signed elite veteran defender Jrue Holiday,to be an instant veteran presence, while also resigning franchise legend Damian Lillard for an eventual return following a season-ending achilles tear. Young stars Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe were both looking at likely breakout years, while the presence of Holiday and Lillard would likely help former third overall pick Scoot Henderson reach his true potential. Add in young core players like Toumani Camara and Donovan Clingan, and it looked like the \u2018Blazers had nowhere to go but up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At least\u2026 that\u2019s what we thought. Following a very close loss in the first game of the season, against the perennial playoff making Timberwolves, Trail Blazers fans received some shocking news. Head coach Chauncey Billups, extended on a multi-year deal just this April for his efforts pushing forward the Trail Blazers rebuild, was arrested(!) as a part of a massive yearslong investigation into the NBA. Versatile Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier also was arrested in the prove, signaling that the gambling probe had implications across the NBA. Fans of the NBA were quick to point out questionable moments from Billups\u2019 tenure, such as low minute totals for star forward Deni Avdija in two January matchups against the Orlando Magic, potential instances in which Billups could have bet that Avdija wouldn\u2019t record certain statistics in those games. Fans also pointed out similar games from Terry Rozier, such as a 2018 playoff game while Rozier played for the Celtics, in which he shot 0-10 from three pointers, and swung the pendulum against the Celtics to end their season. While the official FBI investigation only pointed to collusion during a year-long window from March 2023 – March 2024, the entire careers of both Rozier and Billups have come into intense scrutiny as these investigations have come to light, with questions circulating of whether or not sports gambling has influenced other portions of their careers. On October 29th, the NBA confirmed that both Rozier and Billups would not be paid while on their leave, leaving many to assume that the time in the league for both the Trail Blazers head coach and the rotational Heat guard has burnt out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rozier and Billups being placed on unpaid leave is the latest in the sequence of unfortunate events plaguing the NBA. Most notably, reports emerged during the offseason of Clippers minority owner Steve Ballmer signing his star forward Kawhi Leonard to a 4 year, $28 million for a no-show job sponsoring \u201cAspiration Tree Planting Company\u201d, a clear circumvention of the NBA\u2019s salary cap. Rozier and Billups aren\u2019t even the first sports gambling related suspensions from the league in recent years, as Raptors player Jontay Porter received a permanent ban from the NBA in 2024 for betting on games, including making bets that the Raptors would lose. The NBA is clearly entering a period of instability, and part of that likely stems from the legalization of sports gambling in 38\/50 states. Gambling sponsorships are shoved down the throat of the average NBA viewer, with the logos sponsors like Fanduel and Draftkings displayed across courts league-wide. During ad breaks, celebrities will often don smiles, describing the capability to win big money just by watching and betting on sports, but the addictive nature of sports gambling leads to a massive amount of harmful addiction. Part of the instability in the NBA from these recent incidents likely stems from sports gambling\u2019s explosion in both popularity and accessibility, likely influencing even members of the NBA itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t get much worse for a sports fan than your head coach getting arrested one game into the season. In a stacked Western conference, it isn\u2019t unreasonable to assume that the Trail Blazers are going to have a very difficult time breaking their four year playoff drought. But through four games, the Trail Blazers have still managed a solid 2-2 record. Deni Avdija still seems destined for that breakout season, currently averaging what would easily be a career high 23.5 points per game. With young center Donovan Clingan also breaking out and nearly averaging 10 rebounds per game in that span, there\u2019s hope that the Trail Blazers might be able to reach their full potential after all. Even with their head coach gone after just one game, the Trail Blazers still seem like they have the chance to be competitive in a very stacked Western conference.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in years, it seemed like Portland Trail Blazers fans finally had something to look forward to. The team\u2019s young and inexperienced core seemingly was finally starting to bloom near the end of the 2024-2025 season. The team managed to finish with a solid 36-46 record, their highest mark since the 2020…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":4463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[303],"staff_name":[283],"class_list":["post-4462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-november-25","staff_name-jamie-hutton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4465,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions\/4465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4462"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memorialswordandshield.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=4462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}