TITLE: Jaylen Brown contends NBA is falling short on shielding players from betting fallout
SLUG: jaylen-brown-says-nba-not-protecting-players-from-betting-fallout
CONTENT:
Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown</strong) said the league has not done enough to safeguard players from the growing influence of sports gambling, speaking Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, at Madison Square Garden before the Celtics faced the New York Knicks.
Brown’s comments came one day after Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were among dozens indicted in two federal investigations into nationwide wagering schemes.
“Negative discourse” tied to money at stake
“It creates a negative discourse around the game and players when people have money involved,” Brown said. “You make X amount of money … you should be able to deal with all the extra negativity, the people approaching you about the parlays. It’s leading to situations that we can avoid if more conversations were had right now.”
Details of the federal cases
Prosecutors allege Rozier told a friend he would remove himself from a March 2023 game while with the Charlotte Hornets, triggering hundreds of thousands of dollars in bets on his under statistical props. Billups, according to court documents, faces accusations of organizing rigged poker games and allegedly tipping a bettor in advance that several Blazers starters would miss a March 2023 contest.
Attorneys for both Billups and Rozier said their clients deny the allegations.
Call for stronger league response
Brown, a vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, criticized what he sees as the NBA’s emphasis on revenue over player welfare. “I don’t think once, from my conversations with the union, that the NBA has been like, ‘How can we protect players more with the environment?’ There’s been little to no conversation around that,” he said.
He added that the union’s investigative team would review the cases: “If those guys are innocent, it’s not a great look for them publicly. We’ve got to make sure if they are exonerated, then their images are cleaned up.”
Brown played alongside Rozier in Boston from 2016 to 2019 and described the charges as “not conducive of his character.”
The Celtics forward reiterated that addressing gambling’s impact on players must begin immediately: “Right now, just getting all the information and getting to the bottom of it is the most important thing.”
Source: ESPN
