Pat McAfee didn’t hesitate to bring up the biggest story in sports during “College GameDay” on Saturday.
When discussing the College Football Playoff odds for undefeated and one-loss teams — everyone with at least a 2 percent chance, according to the chart — with the rest of the ESPN panel, McAfee, who hosts his eponymous show this week, made a joke about Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, who was arrested Thursday after allegedly being one of the “face cards.” in a high-stakes poker program that was rigged.
“Not many people bet on two percent odds, unless you’re Chauncey Billups at a Chauncey Billups poker game,” McAfee said from the show, which was set in Nashville ahead of the Vanderbilt-Missouri game. “He reportedly made some big bets on things that just weren’t likely, and everyone kind of knew they were rigged games.”
The scandal emerged in a stunning development this week, when Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones were all arrested after two investigations into separate schemes — for the alleged rigged poker games and for a sports gambling operation that federal investigators say relied on insider tips.
Billups, who was placed on leave by the Trail Blazers after his arrest, was reportedly part of the ring with connections to the mafia that used X-ray card tables, special glasses, special contact lenses and card shuffling to fix the poker games.
Follow The Post’s latest on the gambling scandal rocking the NBA:
The FBI has arrested 31 people involved in a rigged poker gaming ring backed by New York City’s organized crime families.
- Ernest Aiello – reputed Bonanno gangster
- Nelson “Spanish G” Alvarez
- Louis “Lou Ap” Apicella
- Ammar “Flapper Poker” Awawdeh
- Saul Becher – professional poker player
- Chauncey Billups – Portland Trail Blazers coach, NBA Hall of Famer and 2004 NBA Champion
- Matthew “The Wrestler” Daddino
- Eric ‘Spooky’ Serious
- Lee Fama – professional poker player
- Johannes Gallo
- Marco Garzon
- Thomas “Tommy Juice” Gelardo – reputed Lucchese gangster charged in 2013 for beating a porn star girlfriend
- Jamie Gilet
- Tony ‘Black Tony’ Goodson
- Kenny Han
- Shane “Sugar” Hair
- Osman “Albanian Bruce” Hoti
- Horatio Hu
- Zhen “Scruli” Hu
- Damon “Dee Jones” Jones – NBA player from 1998 to 2009
- Joseph Lanni
- John “John South” Mazzola
- Curtis Meeks
- Nicholas Minucci
- Michael Renzulli
- Anthony Ruggero Jr.
- Anthony “Doc” Shnayderman
- Robert ‘Black Rob’ Stroud
- Seth Trustman
- Sophia “Pookie” Wei
- Julius Ziliani
Attorney Chris Heywood told ESPN that Billups is a “man of integrity” and plans to “fight” the case in court.
“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not deceive or deceive others,” Heywood told the newspaper.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government accuses him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall of Fame legacy, his reputation and his freedom. He would jeopardize those things for nothing, let alone a card game.”
But it has also left the Trail Blazers without a head coach in the first games of the season, as interim head coach Tiago Splitter coached the team for their win against the Warriors on Friday.
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