Former Lakers assistant coach damon jones He became the first of 34 defendants to plead guilty Tuesday in a sweeping gambling indictment that also ensnared a Hall of Fame player. chauncey billupsmiami heat star terry rosier and organized crime figures.
Long after retiring from an 11-year NBA playing career with 11 teams, Jones was the Lakers coach in 2022 and 2023. Before the game between the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks on February 9, 2023, in which LeBron James was a late scratch due to a foot injury, evidence revealed that Jones urged a co-conspirator to “place a big bet on Milwaukee before the information came out!”
Jones urged his co-conspirator in one message: “Bet a lot so Jones can eat now!!!”
Jones and James were considered good friends for years. A person close to James told The Times in October that the Lakers star did not know Jones was selling injury information to gamblers.
Jones pleaded not guilty in November to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in sports betting and rigged poker game schemes. However, during back-to-back hearings in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, he entered guilty pleas to those charges.
Sentencing in both cases is scheduled for January 6 before separate judges. The guidelines call for a prison sentence of 21 to 27 months for the sports gambling charge and 63 to 78 months for the rigged poker game charge. Prosecutors said they agreed to give Jones a 15-month reprieve from his sentence in exchange for pleading guilty by April 30.
He first pleaded guilty in the sports betting case. In a prepared statement, he admitted that he conspired with others to defraud sports betting companies by using “inside information obtained as a result of his relationships as a former player.”
Jones, 49, said the goal of the sports betting conspiracy was to use his insider knowledge about players’ injuries to make money gambling.
“I want to sincerely apologize to the court, to my family, to my teammates and also to the National Basketball Association,” said Jones, who was paid $21 million as a player.
He subsequently pleaded guilty to participating in a rigged poker game. Jones admitted that he was paid to use his NBA celebrity to lure deep-pocketed gamblers to poker games in Miami and New York.
Rereading a statement, Jones said that, based on conversations with his co-conspirators at poker games, “I knew that these games were rigged and that the players were being defrauded.”
And again he concluded by apologizing while addressing the court, his family and friends.
“I am truly sorry for my actions to everyone involved,” he said.
Prosecutors said Monday they will seek additional charges against Rozier in the sports betting case after they developed evidence that the 10-year NBA veteran solicited bribes during an alleged gambling scheme.
According to the original indictment, when Rozier played for the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, he told friends he planned to leave the game early due to an “alleged injury,” allowing others to place bets. Rozier has earned $135 million as a player.
Billups, who played with the Clippers for two seasons and later was a member of Clippers coach Ty Lue’s staff before being named head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021, has been accused of rigging an underground poker game that authorities said was backed by three New York mafia families. Billups, who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2024, earned $107 million as a player.
