October 23, 2025 • 6 mins
"Why would a Hall of Famer with over \$100 million in career earnings risk it all in a mafia-run poker ring?"That’s the burning question Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray in starts as a deep dive into the NBA’s latest scandal quickly spirals into a wild ride through mob history, shady prop bets, and unforgettable moments of absurdity.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ninety one point one. The Eagle Man, one of our
favorite Hollywood couples, Kristen Bell and dak Shepard KT has
issued the cancelation warning. Oh, I know, we'll get the
details on that at the bottom of the hour. We
also have bad Omens tickets to give away. You got
to be listening, got to have the iHeart app. But
right now it's time for this Skin Is Track, another
(00:25):
edition of things Skin Is Traffic. Well, here's what we
know so far about the massive scandal in the NBA
in which players not just into the roster players, some
guys have signed some big contracts. Terry Rogier's scary Terry.
They're altering how they play in games to impact over
(00:49):
under betting prop bets. And at the same time, maybe related,
maybe not, but probably related, one of the head coaches
in the league, Hall of Famer, Chauncey Billups, was involved
in an illegal gambling, illegal poker game ring with the mafia.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Wow, Okay, so this is there's obviously a lot of
layers to this. Yeah, but the idea of just poker,
that's to me. I didn't realize you'd get arrested for that.
I'm like, you're just playing poker, but betting and gambling
on NBA games like Terry Rogier. There's all sorts of
highlights of him or low lights of him just giving
(01:29):
the ball over, turning it over. Yeah, and oh he
had a brain fart. Oh here's another brain fart. Here's
another brain fart where you could look at that and go, okay, dude,
he looks like he's throwing this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So supposedly they interviewed him about this or investigated it
before and said nothing to see here and moved on.
And then the Department of Justice or the FBI or
CI or what an FBI I guess in this case,
said Nope, there's more to it, and they dug deeper.
And so as all this comes out, it appears that
(02:00):
all of it will be connected by the crime families
that engage in these activities. Gambino, Yeah, Luke Casey. These
are the families that if you ever want to go
you could. You could do it pretty quick. You could
go jump on Wikipedia and look up La Costa and Nostra,
and these are the families that the movie The Godfather
is based on the Godfather is based on real crime families.
(02:21):
They go back to Sicily and all this and the
guy who wrote it, Mario Puzo or whatever, based it
on that and then they change the names. But it's
there was you know, five families, and they were investigated
by the you know, the government, and they did all
these senate hearings and all this stuff. All that really
happened nice by you have here, there's you know there
(02:42):
they are walking in, They're Russian, they're Italian. Who knows
what they are to be. So the reason it's related
is because all of this sort of activity has always
been run by crime families, right, And so in the
case of an illegal poker game, I mean, we'll wait
for more details to come out, but so Chuncey Billups
was allegedly involved in a game that had poker chips
(03:04):
with cameras on it that could see the cards that
the players were holding, and then they would use Bluetooth
technology to let each other know how to play in
that game.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So he was there alleging that he was one of
the cheaters of shooting people. That's what that's what they're alleging.
But I don't know all the details. I'm sure more
of this will come out, but there was stories a
couple of months ago about Carmelo Anthony being involved in
these card games and the guys that run these card games,
and so it's going to be widespread, it's going to
(03:36):
be deep, it's going to be ugly. But I agree
with you, like the Terry Rosier stuff is way worse
to me than the Chauncey Billups stuff in terms of
how it impacts the NBA. But fraud is fraud, yeah right,
you know, and racketeering is racketeering. And if Chauncey Billups
is involved in this, this is not This is a
hall a guy who went to the Hall of Fame,
(03:58):
like a year ago, he was the number three pick
in the draft. He was on that Pistons team that
actually took out the Lakers. Man he's now he just
got a contract extension. This is not just some average dude.
This is a Hall of Famer. And so a team
right now, the Blazers, they're ready to start the season
(04:18):
and their coaches.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Arrested last night after the game I believe, I think
they lost to Minnesota and then he got arrested.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And it makes me wonder like if for a guy
like that with so much to lose, is he leveraged
like did he bet and then end up owing somebody
so much money they're like, here's what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's absolutely my first thought to Ben, I was like, Okay,
what happened to him to where he was compromised so bad?
And he's always looked at as a high integrity guy.
Very early in his career, he was involved in an
ugly scandal when he was in Boston. Oh oh, that
involved young guys and an alleged sexual assault. Oh oh,
And then he was traded and was able to complete
(04:57):
and by the way, I believe his name was cleared
during all of that. He was there, but he moved
on from all of that. Okay, Yeah, had a Hall
of Fame career. But to Ben's point, when someone who's
made I don't know, can just look up Chauncey Billips's career,
plenty of money millions. I mean, I bet he's made
over one hundred million dollars. He was in a different era,
(05:19):
but I think he's probably made over one hundred million
dollars in his career as a coach and a player.
Just signed, you know, and actually did some broadcasting. Oh
and and then he signed a new contract. But then
you go, why does a guy with that much money
need to be involved.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
In a poker ring? Yeah, yea, why not just play
cards with your friends? Whether you need to be involved
in an illegal poker ring. It's like if he's leveraged
to the mob and they're like, you're gonna come and
since you're a legend, you're going to bring in other
high profile celebrities and rich people. Yeah, and then and
and do you guys know the whole Javaris Crittinton Gilbert
(05:56):
Arena story. You guys remember that the gun that came
out of a card game. They had a card game
that went wrong, so cards. Yeah, all right, we're gonna
be monitoring, not monitoring, but yes, monitoring this huge story.
Uh but coming up next a severe cancelation watch for
two huge celebrities. We'll have that discussion next
Ninety one point one. The Eagle Man, one of our
favorite Hollywood couples, Kristen Bell and dak Shepard KT has
issued the cancelation warning. Oh, I know, we'll get the
details on that at the bottom of the hour. We
also have bad Omens tickets to give away. You got
to be listening, got to have the iHeart app. But
right now it's time for this Skin Is Track, another
(00:25):
edition of things Skin Is Traffic. Well, here's what we
know so far about the massive scandal in the NBA
in which players not just into the roster players, some
guys have signed some big contracts. Terry Rogier's scary Terry.
They're altering how they play in games to impact over
(00:49):
under betting prop bets. And at the same time, maybe related,
maybe not, but probably related, one of the head coaches
in the league, Hall of Famer, Chauncey Billups, was involved
in an illegal gambling, illegal poker game ring with the mafia.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Wow, Okay, so this is there's obviously a lot of
layers to this. Yeah, but the idea of just poker,
that's to me. I didn't realize you'd get arrested for that.
I'm like, you're just playing poker, but betting and gambling
on NBA games like Terry Rogier. There's all sorts of
highlights of him or low lights of him just giving
(01:29):
the ball over, turning it over. Yeah, and oh he
had a brain fart. Oh here's another brain fart. Here's
another brain fart where you could look at that and go, okay, dude,
he looks like he's throwing this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So supposedly they interviewed him about this or investigated it
before and said nothing to see here and moved on.
And then the Department of Justice or the FBI or
CI or what an FBI I guess in this case,
said Nope, there's more to it, and they dug deeper.
And so as all this comes out, it appears that
(02:00):
all of it will be connected by the crime families
that engage in these activities. Gambino, Yeah, Luke Casey. These
are the families that if you ever want to go
you could. You could do it pretty quick. You could
go jump on Wikipedia and look up La Costa and Nostra,
and these are the families that the movie The Godfather
is based on the Godfather is based on real crime families.
(02:21):
They go back to Sicily and all this and the
guy who wrote it, Mario Puzo or whatever, based it
on that and then they change the names. But it's
there was you know, five families, and they were investigated
by the you know, the government, and they did all
these senate hearings and all this stuff. All that really
happened nice by you have here, there's you know there
(02:42):
they are walking in, They're Russian, they're Italian. Who knows
what they are to be. So the reason it's related
is because all of this sort of activity has always
been run by crime families, right, And so in the
case of an illegal poker game, I mean, we'll wait
for more details to come out, but so Chuncey Billups
was allegedly involved in a game that had poker chips
(03:04):
with cameras on it that could see the cards that
the players were holding, and then they would use Bluetooth
technology to let each other know how to play in
that game.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So he was there alleging that he was one of
the cheaters of shooting people. That's what that's what they're alleging.
But I don't know all the details. I'm sure more
of this will come out, but there was stories a
couple of months ago about Carmelo Anthony being involved in
these card games and the guys that run these card games,
and so it's going to be widespread, it's going to
(03:36):
be deep, it's going to be ugly. But I agree
with you, like the Terry Rosier stuff is way worse
to me than the Chauncey Billups stuff in terms of
how it impacts the NBA. But fraud is fraud, yeah right,
you know, and racketeering is racketeering. And if Chauncey Billups
is involved in this, this is not This is a
hall a guy who went to the Hall of Fame,
(03:58):
like a year ago, he was the number three pick
in the draft. He was on that Pistons team that
actually took out the Lakers. Man he's now he just
got a contract extension. This is not just some average dude.
This is a Hall of Famer. And so a team
right now, the Blazers, they're ready to start the season
(04:18):
and their coaches.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Arrested last night after the game I believe, I think
they lost to Minnesota and then he got arrested.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And it makes me wonder like if for a guy
like that with so much to lose, is he leveraged
like did he bet and then end up owing somebody
so much money they're like, here's what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's absolutely my first thought to Ben, I was like, Okay,
what happened to him to where he was compromised so bad?
And he's always looked at as a high integrity guy.
Very early in his career, he was involved in an
ugly scandal when he was in Boston. Oh oh, that
involved young guys and an alleged sexual assault. Oh oh,
And then he was traded and was able to complete
(04:57):
and by the way, I believe his name was cleared
during all of that. He was there, but he moved
on from all of that. Okay, Yeah, had a Hall
of Fame career. But to Ben's point, when someone who's
made I don't know, can just look up Chauncey Billips's career,
plenty of money millions. I mean, I bet he's made
over one hundred million dollars. He was in a different era,
(05:19):
but I think he's probably made over one hundred million
dollars in his career as a coach and a player.
Just signed, you know, and actually did some broadcasting. Oh
and and then he signed a new contract. But then
you go, why does a guy with that much money
need to be involved.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
In a poker ring? Yeah, yea, why not just play
cards with your friends? Whether you need to be involved
in an illegal poker ring. It's like if he's leveraged
to the mob and they're like, you're gonna come and
since you're a legend, you're going to bring in other
high profile celebrities and rich people. Yeah, and then and
and do you guys know the whole Javaris Crittinton Gilbert
(05:56):
Arena story. You guys remember that the gun that came
out of a card game. They had a card game
that went wrong, so cards. Yeah, all right, we're gonna
be monitoring, not monitoring, but yes, monitoring this huge story.
Uh but coming up next a severe cancelation watch for
two huge celebrities. We'll have that discussion next
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.