Category World News

According to US media reports on Thursday, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier have been detained in connection with investigations into illegal gambling.

According to a source with law enforcement, the 49-year-old Billups’ arrest was connected to an illegal poker game organized by the Mafia, according to ABC News.

According to the television network, Rozier was detained in a separate, separately related betting case.

At 10:00 am (14:00 GMT), FBI Director Kash Patel is scheduled to release an information regarding the arrests in New York.

Billups, a former NBA Hall of Famer and former star player for the Detroit Pistons, left in 2014.

Since 2021, he has been the Trail Blazers’ head coach.

Billups was on the bench for the team’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday in its first game of the season.

Later on Thursday, Billups made his first court appearance in Oregon, according to ABC.

Rozier, 31, was the Boston Celtics’ 2015 draft choice with the 16th overall pick.

In his 11 years playing for the NBA, he has averaged 13.9 points per game while playing for three teams.

Rozier missed the Heat’s opening game of the NBA season on Wednesday because of a hamstring injury.

Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors, a player in the NBA, was given a life-long ban last year for his involvement in a betting scandal.

Porter, the Brooklyn Nets’ younger brother, was charged with placing wagers on his performance.

He has admitted guilt to wire-fraud conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.

According to league regulations, NBA players are prohibited from placing wagers on games. Those found to have cheated on NBA games face fines, suspensions, or life sentences.

Gilbert Arenas, a former NBA All-Star, was detained in July on suspicion of having illegal poker games at his mansion in the Los Angeles suburbs, three months after Billups’ arrest.

According to an indictment released in Los Angeles, Arenas, who played for the Washington Wizards, rented out the posh Encino home “for the purposes of hosting high-stakes illegal poker games” between September 2021 and July 2022.

Arenas is accused of making false statements to federal investigators and one count of conspiracy to run an illegal gambling business.

Lin Yu-ting, the reigning champion boxer from Taiwan, won gold on her return to the ring following the 2024 Paris Games gender row, her coach said on Thursday.

Lin and Imane Khelif, both from Algeria, won Olympic titles in different weight classes in Paris.

In her first competition since the Olympics, Lin won gold at Taiwan’s 60-kg championship on Wednesday.

The boxer was seen smiling and holding a gold medal in a photo that was shared on Lin’s Facebook Stories.

“It was good,” he said. Tseng Tzu-chiang, Lin’s coach, stated that the preparations had been done, confirming that this was Lin’s first official event since Paris.

Lin agreed to undergo a mandatory genetic sex test and had indicated that she wanted to compete in the world championships in Liverpool in September.

Tseng claimed Lin had not yet received a response from World Boxing, putting a hold on her participation in upcoming international competitions.

“The outcome depends on how the outcome is decided. If it does, there will be numerous international competitions that we can participate in, Tseng predicted.

Under the recently implemented rules of World Boxing, competitors over the age of 18 who want to compete in the women’s category must undergo a one-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or a medical equivalent genetic test.

The five-member women’s boxing team from France, which had been competing in Liverpool for a while, were reportedly prohibited from competing there because they had missed the deadline for the submission of test results.

Lin and Khelif were denied entry to the 2023 World Boxing Championships by the International Boxing Association because of their insufficient performance on the eligibility criteria.

However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which intervened to regulate boxing at the Paris Games, allowed them to compete, claiming that the IBA had made a “shut-and-arbitrary decision” to allow them to both. Both won gold medals after that.

Both fighters were the targets of rumors about their biological sex and disinformation during the Games.