波特兰开拓者队主教练兼国家篮球协会名人堂成员昌西·比卢普斯预计将在周一在布鲁克林联邦法院出庭时对联邦指控做出无罪辩护，联邦指控他帮助引诱不知情的球员参与操纵扑克游戏。
检察官说，比卢普斯是被指控的计划的一个“面牌”之一，他利用自己的名气吸引豪赌客到配有x光技术和改装洗牌机的扑克桌上。扑克游戏是由有组织的犯罪家族支持的，根据起诉书这是10月23日披露的。
比卢普斯在NBA打了17个赛季，是2004年NBA总决赛最有价值球员，是该计划中被指控的31名被告之一，他们都将于周一出庭。他们面临着各种指控，包括电信诈骗阴谋和洗钱阴谋。
联邦检察官表示，他们预计一些被告最终会选择认罪。
“虽然政府和任何一名被告进行实质性的认罪协商还为时过早，但政府和几名被告的辩护律师已经开始进行富有成效的讨论，政府希望最终能够在不需要审判的情况下解决几名被告的问题，”检察官在周一的情况会议之前的一份法庭文件中写道。
对比卢普斯和他的共同被告不利的证据——包括热火后卫特里·罗齐尔和前球员兼教练达蒙·琼斯的信息来自电子设备、监控照片、杆子摄像机镜头、银行记录和电话记录，检察官说。
对比卢普斯和其他人的指控披露后不到一周NBA宣布ABC新闻获得的一份NBA联盟备忘录显示，该联盟正在审查如何保护自己免受体育博彩的影响，以及它是否做了足够的工作来教育教练、球员和其他人员赌博可能给他们的职业生涯带来的“可怕风险”。
NBA表示，当指控宣布时，比卢普斯和罗齐尔立即被他们的球队停职。
Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups due in court Monday
Portland Trail Blazers head coach and National Basketball Association hall of famer Chauncey Billups is expected to plead not guilty to federal charges that he helped lure unsuspecting players to rigged poker games when he appears in Brooklyn federal court Monday.
Prosecutors said Billups was one of the alleged scheme’s a “face cards” who used his celebrity to attract high-rollers to poker tables that were equipped with x-ray technology and altered shuffling machines.The poker games were backed by organized crime families,according to the indictment, which was revealed Oct. 23.
Billups, who spent 17 seasons in the NBA and was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP, is one of 31 defendants charged in the scheme, all of whom are due in court Monday.They’re facing various charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors signaled that they expect a number of the defendants will ultimately opt to plead guilty.
“Although it is too early for the government and any of the defendants to engage in substantial plea negotiations, the government and defense counsel for several defendants have begun productive discussions that the government hopes will ultimately lead to resolutions as to several defendants without the need for a trial,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing ahead of Monday’s status conference.
The evidence against Billups and his codefendants – including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozierand former player and coach Damon Jones – comes from electronic devices, surveillance photographs, pole camera footage, bank records and phone records, prosecutors said.
Less than a week after the charges against Billups and others were revealed, theNBA announcedthat it was undertaking a review of how the league can protect itself from sports betting and whether it's doing enough to educate coaches, players and other personnel about the "dire risks" gambling could pose to their careers, according to an NBA league memo obtained by ABC News.
Billups and Rozier were immediately placed on leave by their teams when the charges were announced, the NBA said.
