The arrest of now-suspended Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups on illegal gambling charges last week gave rise to multiple questions. One of the critical ones was, “How did Billups get involved in all this in the first place?”
Today Carson Kessler and Nathan Fenno of The Athletic detailed the relationship between Billups and Eric Earnest, a convicted felon and gambler with reported ties to the Black Mafia Family organized crime association [subscription required].
The article begins by quoting retired DEA agent Thomas Sawyer who participated in wiretaps which included Earnest two decades ago. Sawyer said that law enforcement agents assumed Earnest’s bragging about his connections to well-known athletes was spurious, but they were later proven true.
Court records, business filings and social media portray Earnest as a well-connected, charming St. Louis resident, a father and husband, someone rooted in the hip-hop and R&B scene — but continually running afoul of law enforcement. Exactly how he got connected to NBA players and other athletes isn’t clear, but his presence in high-stakes dice and card games, and his ties to the music industry, may have provided an entry. The Justice Department stated that he and Billups were longtime friends, participating in an illegal, rigged poker game together a mere two months after Earnest was released from custody in 2019.
At the time of the St. Louis wiretaps, Billups was one of the NBA’s rising stars. He won NBA Finals MVP in 2004 while leading the Detroit Pistons to their first championship since 1990 and made his first All-Star team in 2006. He had built himself into one of the game’s great two-way players. Earnest has been an accused felon since he was 17. He pleaded guilty or was found guilty on five felony charges, including commercial burglary and theft in 1991 and 1992, and was sent to state prison in Arkansas. In 1995, he was charged with robbing a post office. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison.
The article also offers a little information about the particulars of the poker games Billups is accused of colluding in. This includes timing, full knowledge of the games being rigged, and participation in the fleecing of unwitting players.
Earnest was released from federal custody in February 2019, according to the Bureau of Prisons. At the time, Billups was out of the NBA. Two months later, in April, according to the indictment, there was a rigged poker game in Las Vegas where Billups and Earnest were present, with Billups acting as described as a “Face Card,” used to attract high-net-worth individuals.
“Spook and Chauncey hit 2 gutshot on the river against the same guy … both calls were over 30k,” texted one participant in the scheme, according to a detention order submitted by the government. “So I was thinking maybe instead of u playing we let let one of the middle eastern guy play…and whenever he got the winning hand Chauncey and/ spook [Eric Earnest] lose to him…”
For context, a “gutshot on the river” is a hand of five cards in a row (numerically, like 2-3-4-5-6) wherein a player has four of the cards already but needs the dealer to reveal the exact, final straight-completing card “on the river”, or as the last card revealed in that round of play. A “gutshot” happens when the final card is one of three inside cards in the straight, the 3-4-5 in the example above. A 3-4-5-6 hand could be completed with a 2 or a 7. That’s not a gutshot. A 2-3-5-6 hand requires a 4—and only a 4—to make the straight. That “bullet in the middle” is a gutshot for the player who otherwise would have beat the straight-holder’s hand. Gutshots are exceedingly rare. Watching opponents complete two on the river in the same gambling session would probably cause a wise observer to suspect the game might be crooked. The text above seems to suggest that Billups and Earnest later be seen losing money to a third player in the game—perhaps also in on the con, so the money didn’t go outside the group—so suspicions about them are allayed, since they won in so unusual a fashion.
The article goes on to suggest that the relationship between Billups and Earnest extended beyond their poker play, up to and including the now-familiar implication that Billups shared privileged information on the Trail Blazers on one occasion, leading to skewed betting on NBA games.
That Earnest and Billups connected for the alleged poker scheme only two months after Earnest was released from custody could suggest that their relationship began earlier.
On social media, Billups is seen in photos with Terry Lee Flenory, one of the founders of the Black Mafia Family. A comment from Billups’ account reads, “Always love bro. Great times ahead. Happy for u…” That post came in 2021, the year Billups was hired as Portland’s head coach.
On Instagram, Billups follows Earnest’s wife and daughter. Billups’ wife, Piper, also follows Earnest’s daughter. One of Billups’ daughters and one of Earnest’s daughters, who both participated in dance competitions, follow one another.
The Justice Department alleges that the friendship between the two men also included the alleged trading of insider information. Between December 2022 and March 2024, prosecutors allege that Earnest received and passed along non-public information from “a long-time friend” and NBA coach who is not named in the indictment, but identifying details match those of Billups. Earnest is also alleged to have received such information from former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones. In turn, Earnest would allegedly sell the information to co-defendant Marves Fairley to place bets.
Relationships are complex, particularly as they evolve over time. Association is not guilt, let alone conviction. But the Athletic article does peel back some of the veil across claims that perhaps Billups didn’t know what was going on or what he was participating in.
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