NBA Gambling Arrests Are All Part Of Trump’s Revenge Agenda, Stephen A. Smith Says: “He’s Coming”

The arrest of NBA stars and coaches today by the feds over allegations of insider betting schemes and Mob-backed poker games are all part of a vengeful Donald Trump power play, says Stephen A. Smith.

“I’m watching a press conference with the director of the FBI,” the provocative ESPN host stated this morning not long after Kash Patel and a phalanx of law enforcement officials unveiled the arrests of 30 individuals that include the Miami Heat’s Terry Rozier, ex-Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones, and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. “Tell me when we’ve seen that,” Smith went on to say of the clearly crafted media spectacle Thursday morning.

As you can see below, Smith added: “We’ve seen accusations before. We’ve seen athletes get in trouble with the law before. You don’t see the director of the FBI having a press conference. It’s not coincidental. It’s not an accident. It’s a statement, and it’s a warning that more is coming.”

Turning to the topic of Trump himself and possible more NBA targets and even the WNBA, the increasingly political multi-platform pundit issued a warning to his fanbase and America. Trump’s “not playing,” Smith stated.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he then said of a possible crackdowns in sports like we have seen in other arenas of American life since the authoritarian Trump returned to office earlier this year. “It’s very concerning. We don’t know where this is gonna go. But everybody better brace themselves, because he’s coming.”

Now it should be noted Rozier was previously investigated by the Adam Silver-led NBA itself over betting accusations but that died on the vine. Also, for all often mentioned potential 2028 POTUS candidate Smith’s spotlighting of Donald Trump and his minions in this matter, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York have actually been probing these crimes for about two years, officials say.

Marring the otherwise pretty stellar opening days of the just started current NBA season, as Smith pointed out on First Take today, the arrests saw the league put Billups and Rozier, who was in uniform for the Heats’ October 22 game against the Orlando Magic, on immediate leave. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said Thursday around the time Rozier appeared in court in Florida on the charges.

If, besides the Trump element from Smith, you think this has all the makings of an Aaron Sorkin script directed by Guy Ritchie – there’s more.

In the poker game indictment, Detroit Pistons legend and NBA Hall of Famer Billups and Jones were allegedly knowingly used as celebrity lures by the much feared Gambino, Genovese and Bonnano crime families to draw in and fleece would-be big shots. To that, the DOJ claims that starting in 2019 “the defendants and their co-conspirators, who constituted the remaining participants purportedly playing in the poker games, worked together on cheating teams (collectively, the ‘Cheating Teams’) that used advanced wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each poker hand and relay that information to the defendants and co­conspirators participating in the illegal poker games (collectively, the ‘Rigged Games’).”

The 22-page poker indictment adds: “The defendants and their co-conspirators then bet accordingly to ensure that the unsuspecting Victims lost money. Through the Rigged Poker Scheme, the defendants and their co-conspirators defrauded Victims of millions of dollars.” The feds say $7 million to be exact was lost by victims of the rigged games. With that kind of money at play, the indictment alleges that sometimes things got a bit rough, and sometimes members of the “three La Cosa Nostra crime families” got really rough

With defendants looking at a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars on wire fraud conspiracy charges and 20 years for the money laundering conspiracy count, the 23-page illegal sports betting indictment names very specific teams and games. As well, it lays out the scope and depth of the alleged crimes and manipulation of games.

“The fraudulent wagering scheme typically involved various iterations of the same pattern within a network of co-conspirators,” the indictment exclaims of a scam that ran into the “tens of millions of dollars,” according to FBI Director Patel.

Naming names a lot, the indictment says: “The defendants and certain co­conspirators had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches that was likely to affect the outcome of upcoming NBA games or individual players’ performances. They provided other co-conspirators this non-public information-in exchange for either a flat fee or a share in expected wagering profits-for the purpose of betting. The co-conspirators disseminated the non-public betting information through a network of individuals who placed bets on the co-conspirators’ behalf, placed wagers on their own behalf, or directed others to place wagers, all with the intention of profiting off the scheme at the expense of the Betting Companies. As a result, many of the wagers were placed in connection with betting lines that did not reflect or account for the private information known by the defendants and their co­conspirators, rendering the wagers more profitable.”

Mentioned in the betting indictment but not arrested Thursday is a “prominent N.B.A. player” who is with the L.A. Lakers. That “Player 3” was an ex-teammate of Jones, who is in many ways the link between the two indictments. Jones confidential info about Player 3’w medical condition for the February 9, 2023 and January 15, 2024 games and leaked that info to co-conspirators in the gambling syndicate.

While it is not made explicit at all in the indictment if Player 3 knew his status was being used as insider info, it is true that Jones and LeBron James played together at the Cavs in the early 2000s. It is also true that Jones told one of his gambling colleagues that Player 3 would not be on the court for the February 2023 Lakers vs the  Milwaukee Bucks game, and the individual should “get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” James did not play that game due to an issue with one of his ankles.

With what is certain to be a parade of defendants in court over the next few weeks in both cases, Stephen A. Smith today asserted: “For me, this is the latest nugget of evidence. That’s not to question the legitimacy of the case, we don’t know. But anybody that has been around him, anybody that has talked to him and seen his reactions, from the sports leagues …they are not surprised at what’s going on today.”

At another point this morning on his show, Smith reiterated: “How many times, with one incident after another, have I said Trump is coming. He’s coming.”

Contacted by Deadline today about the indictments and arrests, the White Houser referred us to the DOJ and the FBI.

Ted Johnson contributed to this report