• Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
  • Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
  • Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
  • Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

Be That ! Menu   ≡ ╳
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics Politics
☰

Be that!

Protesters arrested after blocking federal agents in NYC

admin - Latest News - November 30, 2025
admin
6 views 34 secs 0 Comments



Several people were arrested in lower Manhattan after police said they refused to disperse from outside a parking garage containing Homeland Security vehicles. Crowds apparently attempted to stop a federal raid in the area as they yelled anti-ICE chants. Last month, federal officers conducted a raid in the same area, targeting street vendors known for selling jewelry, watches and knockoff bags on Canal Street.



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
People arrested during anti-ICE demonstration in NYC
NEXT
Nov. 29, 2025, 7:42 AM EST / Updated Nov. 29, 2025, 2:57 PM ESTBy Freddie ClaytonJust as peace talks were gaining traction, Ukraine has lost its lead negotiator.Andriy Yermak, an ever-present figure at President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s side throughout the war with Russia, resigned as chief of staff on Friday after an anti-corruption raid at his home, injecting fresh uncertainty for Ukraine’s leadership.The exit leaves a vacuum around Zelenskyy as talks accelerate, isolating the Ukrainian president at a critical moment and creating an opening Moscow may try to exploit, analysts say.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his chief of staff Andriy Yermak in Madrid on Nov. 18.Oscar Del Pozo / AFP – Getty ImagesThe development capped a dramatic week, which began with Kyiv under intense pressure from President Donald Trump to endorse a plan that aligned with Moscow’s hard-line demands. An initial deadline of Thursday, imposed by the White House, passed without any announcement as Ukraine and its allies pushed back against calls for the country to cede territory.Ukrainian negotiators, led by Yermak, secured changes, and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will now head to Moscow for talks next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Russia still wants to move toward peace despite its belief that Zelenskyy was not a legitimate leader.Putin says he’s ready for ‘serious’ talks to end war in Ukraine00:29But analysts warn that Yermak’s departure leaves Kyiv navigating unfamiliar waters, as Zelenskyy is forced to steer Ukraine through high-stakes negotiations without his most trusted aide.Yermak’s resignation comes at a “very bad time, because we’re really at a possible tipping point where you know what Ukraine is demanding may not be granted or taken into consideration,” Michael Bociurkiw, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told NBC News by phone on Saturday.“None of us really know what Zelenskyy is like operating solo, because he never has,” he said, adding that Yermak has “basically stood in” for Zelenskyy at times.Rustem Umerov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, will lead Ukraine’s delegation for a round of talks in the U.S. on Sunday, Zelenskyy said in a post on X. Umerov has also been mentioned by anti-corruption investigators. Neither he nor Yermak have faced charges.Bociurkiw added that Yermak’s departure would be unlikely to change Ukraine’s firm stance on territorial concessions, but that Russia “will try to manipulate and take advantage of this vacuum.”Secretary Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner will attend Sunday talks, a U.S. official tells NBC News. Michael A. Horowitz, a Jerusalem-based geopolitical consultant, echoed Bociurkiw’s concerns, saying that Yermak’s resignation, just days before major U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks and a potential Trump-Putin summit, “disrupts Kyiv’s preparations and invites counterparts to probe whether Ukraine’s red lines on territory and NATO can be eased during the transition.”But in the long term, Horowitz told NBC News on Saturday, Yermak’s departure could even be a positive.Critics have said for years that Yermak had accumulated too much power and wielded excessive influence over Zelenskyy. A constant presence by the president’s side through the ups and downs of the war, Yermak had emerged as one of the few men that the Ukrainian leader appeared to really trust.Zelenskyy has previously railed against corrupt officials, but signs that a corruption scandal may have stretched into his inner circle may provide more ammunition to critics of further support for Ukraine. Trump-aligned figures, including Vice President JD Vance, have previously criticized Ukraine for its issues with corruption.Yermak’s departure may “reinforce skepticism within the Trump administration” about Zelenskyy’s inner circle, giving them further reasons to push for concessions, said Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.But Horowitz said the resignation “removes a lightning rod for controversy and gives Kyiv a cleaner, more collective mandate to say no to an unfair and unsustainable peace,” adding: “Zelenskyy is getting his house in order.”When it comes to how the rule of law is being enforced in Ukraine, “generally this is a good sign,” said Moritz Brake, a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies.“Of course, it’s bad enough that these accusations existed in the first place,” he added, but “even those in the highest places are prosecuted when suspicions arise.”Zelenskyy said in a video statement on Friday that he was looking for Yermak’s replacement. “Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes,” he said. “There will be no mistakes on our part.”Losing unity could mean losing the country and its future, he added.But Bociurkiw said time is “not on Ukraine’s side right now.”If you’re Ukraine at the moment, he added, “you need not only a physical army, but an army of diplomats and advocates.”Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 
Related Post
October 15, 2025
Oct. 14, 2025, 6:26 PM EDTBy Daniella Silva and Natasha KoreckiCHICAGO — A teacher said tear gas drifted toward a school playground, forcing students and recess indoors. A viral video recorded near another school showed law enforcement dragging a woman out of her van and onto the ground. And students say they have seen ICE vehicles in their neighborhoods, leading them to feel frightened, according to one instructor. Educators say those incidents and others that have taken place as federal immigration agents increase arrests in Chicago are disrupting their jobs, upending their communities and traumatizing their students.“Everyone’s very anxious,” said Sheena Shukla, a school social worker for Chicago Public Schools. “Can you imagine telling a 12-year-old that people are out there who might want to take their family? We can’t shield our children from these realities, so we provide them with a level of support that they can understand.” In response, school staff members have organized teams to report and respond to Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity around their schools, including patrolling the area, keeping concerned parents informed and helping escort some families to and from school, according to members of the Chicago Teachers Union. That work includes talking to their students in age-appropriate ways about what’s going on in their communities in a city that is nearly 30% Latino and more than 22% foreign-born, Shukla said.Armed federal agents clash with protesters in Chicago03:13The Chicago Public Schools district is holding daily calls with city leaders and its labor partners. It said in a statement to NBC News that while there has been law enforcement activity near some schools, there have been no incidents inside its schools and facilities. Nonetheless, the district and the Chicago Teachers Union have been issuing guidance and taking steps in preparation for federal immigration enforcement since President Donald Trump returned to office in January.“School remains the safest and best place for students. CPS staff have safety protocols, including how to respond if federal representatives seek access to school property or interaction with students or staff,” the district said.The district has also been vocal about the fact that it does not collaborate with federal immigration enforcement agencies, including ICE. Agents will not be granted access to its schools unless they present a “valid criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge,” the district said in its statement.The Department of Homeland Security referred NBC News to a statement saying ICE does not target schools or children. “ICE is not going to schools to make arrests of children. Criminals are no longer able to hide in America’s schools to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement. “If a dangerous illegal alien felon were to flee into a school, or a child sex offender is working as an employee, there may be a situation where an arrest is made to protect public safety. But this has not happened.” On Tuesday, DHS said on social media that its enforcement surge in the area, known as Operation Midway Blitz, “is making Illinois SAFE again” and had arrested over 1,500 people across Illinois, including criminals and gang members.Last week, Chicago Teachers Union officials met with about a dozen teachers at Funston Elementary School to talk about a recent incident involving immigration officials and tear gas being deployed near the school.More on immigration enforcement in IllinoisHow immigration enforcement turned sleepy Broadview into a chaotic, militarized townIllinois officials issue orders and file lawsuits as protesters clash with immigration agentsBodycam videos show ICE agents’ initial reactions to fatal Chicago shootingIllinois Gov. JB Pritzker calls armed immigration officers in Chicago an ‘attack on Americans’Maria Heavener, a first grade teacher at the school, described how she was teaching on Oct. 3 when she heard what sounded like helicopters, horns blowing on the street and a whistle educators used to announce ICE activity. She then saw a message from a fifth grade teacher at the school who spotted ICE “less than 100 feet from our building” while walking to a store called Rico Fresh Market for lunch. “Tear gas filled the streets, blowing into the parking lot of Rico Fresh and towards the direction of our playground across the street,” Heavener said at a news conference with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.A class that had been outside was quickly pulled inside so it was not affected by the tear gas, Heavener said. The school said in a letter to families that it held recess indoors for the rest of the day out of an abundance of caution and that staff members were well-versed in the protocols for keeping students safe.By dismissal time, about 100 community members were lined up and down the streets near the school, “creating safe passage for our children and families and sending a clear message that ICE is not welcome in our community,” Heavener said.DHS did not respond to a request for comment about enforcement activity and deploying tear gas near the school or concerns about using chemical agents near schools.“There is no institution available right now that is constructed to deal with the trauma, the impact that our young people and their families and our communities are experiencing,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said.Heavener and other school staff members told NBC News they have seen a drop in attendance as the immigration enforcement operations have increased. “Some families and students, they’re not leaving the home,” said Shukla, the social worker.Videos of apparent immigration enforcement activity around the city have kept teachers on high alert, including a recent viral post showing federal agents taking a woman out of her car and putting her on the ground while they were detaining her. The person who recorded and posted the video said that she is a teacher and that the incident took place near the school they work at during dismissal as parents were picking up their children. The teacher claimed she heard students shouting “It’s ICE!” and running away. NBC News could not independently verify the details described in the post, and the poster of the video did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DHS said in a statement about the incident that while it was conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations, Border Patrol was “harassed and recklessly followed by agitators with megaphones and whistles who began to yell inflammatory remarks and alerted the public of the officers’ presence.”“They were driving recklessly, including weaving between lanes and putting other motorists at risk. Following the driver abruptly stopping in the middle of traffic near a school, law enforcement approached the vehicle,” McLaughlin said. “The occupants refused to exit the vehicle and follow law enforcement commands.”She said the people in the car were two immigrants in the country illegally from Mexico but did not identify them or specify whether they were detained.A teacher at a school in Englewood, a neighborhood in Chicago’s South Side, told NBC News that students have reported witnessing ICE vans near their homes or driving by during recess. The teacher said that during a check-in with a seventh-grade class, a student said “she was feeling sad because she witnessed somebody getting abducted by ICE. Immediately, the entire class just became a discussion of ICE activity.” The teacher, who asked to remain anonymous because of fears that federal immigration agents could target his school community, said some of his students’ family members have been arrested by immigration agents.“It ripples out. Now there are other students who are missing their friends,” he said. Heavener said her young students have a hard time comprehending what is going on.When school returned the Monday after the incident near Funston Elementary, Heavener said, she asked her first grade class how they were feeling and whether they had questions about what happened.Some were confused, and others “knew exactly what Immigrations and Customs Enforcement was, they knew what a tear gas canister was.”“They were telling me that they feel sad and they feel scared. It doesn’t make sense to them,” she said. “In social studies, we’re also doing a unit on community, about getting along with others, about rules and laws, about citizenship and respect, and they’re seeing all of these things be violated in real time. The things that they’re learning and the things that they’re seeing outside of the window don’t line up.” Heavener asked students to share a word that described how they felt. Most said “scared” or “worried.” Then one student said they felt brave, she said.The student said, “I feel brave, because at the end of the day, did you see how many neighbors were outside? They were there to keep us safe,” she recounted.“Then another kid, encouraged by that, said: ‘I feel confident, because I know school is the safest place to be. My mom was telling me that school, they can’t come into our school,’” Heavener said. “I think that is also what gave me hope in the moment.”Daniella SilvaDaniella Silva is a national reporter for NBC News, focusing on immigration and education.Natasha KoreckiNatasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
November 10, 2025
Supreme Court rejects case on same-sex marriage
November 19, 2025
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 19, 2025, 1:47 PM ESTBy Sahil KapurWASHINGTON — With a near-unanimous vote in Congress to pass his bill requiring the release of Jeffrey Epstein files, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., can claim a victory that no other Democratic presidential prospect has achieved: cracking the MAGA coalition.Early polls suggest he’d be a heavy underdog if he runs. But the California Democrat has been traveling to swing states and early contests to test the water for a possible White House bid.Khanna, 49, teamed up with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act in July. The bill requires the Justice Department to release its records related to Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who had connections to a number of powerful figures, within 30 days.Khanna and Massie attracted Republican co-sponsors and just enough signatures to end-run House GOP leaders and force a vote, with MAGA luminaries such as Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado supporting the measure.It was a rare bipartisan feat, made more difficult by President Donald Trump, who pushed for months to dissuade Republicans from joining the effort. But in the final days, Trump bowed to what increasingly appeared to be an inevitability, flipping his stance and backing it. Party leaders followed him. Every Republican except one joined unanimous Democrats on Tuesday to vote for the measure on the House floor, sending it to the Senate, which passed it unanimously.In an interview in the speaker’s lobby moments before the House vote on his bill, Khanna told NBC News his project contains the building blocks of a national vision.“Whatever role I have, I hope it’s a role in shaping the national future of the Democratic Party and the country,” he said. “We need to build an enduring coalition around a vision of new economic patriotism that can unite the left and right. And the elements of that are to rail against an elite governing class that has created a system that’s not working for ordinary Americans. And then to offer a concrete vision of how we’re going to prioritize the economic independence and success of those forgotten Americans, as opposed to just this billionaire elite class.”He melded the new effort into his larger left-right message, attacking “the Epstein class that has accumulated power and doesn’t play by the rules and has impunity at the expense of ordinary Americans.”Khanna’s approach is unique among Democrats. He doesn’t quite have the fiery rhetoric of other rumored White House hopefuls such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and he doesn’t have the iconic progressive image of New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Simply put, his willingness to partner with MAGA figures who are detested by liberals may not be a selling point for an angry and fired-up Democratic base.“That’s a criticism I sometimes get,” Khanna quipped.Still, the California Democrat shows his sharp elbows against Republicans at times, most notably positioning himself as a foil to Vice President JD Vance, who’s seen as a potential Republican front-runner in 2028. He’ll often go after him on social media. During a speech in April at Yale Law School, where both Vance and Khanna received their degrees, Khanna drew a comparison between the vice president and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Vance’s office did not return a request for comment.Rep. Ro Khanna says Epstein is a winning issue for Democrats: ‘This is about trust in government’01:23Khanna lacks the national name recognition of other Democrats, including Pete Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate and transportation secretary in the Biden administration, who has also been viewed as a potential 2028 candidate.Not since the 1800s has a House member ascended straight to the presidency; and as an Indian American, Khanna would be looking to make history in more ways than one.But what he has built is a level of trust among Republicans who wouldn’t work with other Democrats. He said he’s done that by “being civil to colleagues” — including some hard-right Republicans — and building trust and partnerships with them, giving them credit, taking his message to “Republican-leaning podcasts” and “treating MAGA voters with respect.”“I have not gotten into Twitter wars with Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert. I have a real friendship with Thomas Massie,” he said. “They trusted me enough not to make it about Donald Trump — from day one, any press conference we did, anything we did, we talked about it being about the survivors, not political.”Khanna said his insistence on seeing the humanity in those GOP lawmakers, who are top Democratic foes, was key to success.“It was the whole thing,” he added. “If I had engaged in those kind of meme wars and others, there’s no way Massie would have worked with me.”The White House downplayed the Khanna-Massie effort, despite the president fighting it for months, saying Trump had already been “calling for transparency,” on the Epstein files “and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents as part of the ongoing Oversight investigation.”Khanna has a different vision of bipartisanship than other Democrats, including former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, who sought to find the most moderate Republicans and work with them on noncontroversial goals. By contrast, Khanna tends to look for GOP lawmakers to partner with on populist issues that both the left and the right can sell as a rebuke of an entrenched establishment.He has teamed up with Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., to repeal Trump’s tariffs on coffee, and with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, to propose congressional term limits. He worked with Republicans to advocate for reining in the government’s warrantless surveillance powers under FISA Section 702 and to prevent U.S. military intervention in Yemen.Massie said Khanna’s approach was instrumental in the success of their Epstein measure. He said he saw an opening when Khanna offered an Epstein amendment in the Rules Committee, and “got every Democrat and one Republican to vote for it.”“Ro gave me the idea, whether he meant to or not,” Massie said. “He’s able to put aside the partisan bomb throwing in order to work across the aisle, and he’s really good on TV.”“He was an important element of this,” the Kentucky Republican said. “And it was his idea, really, to organize the survivor press conference. So I don’t know if it would have succeeded with any other Democrat on the other side of the aisle.”Others have nothing to say about Khanna, including Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, who replied, “No comment,” when asked about his role in the Epstein bill.On the House floor before the vote, Khanna thanked his Republican partners on the bill. “The Epstein class is going to go,” he said. “And the reason they’re gonna go is the progressive left and the MAGA right and everyone in between is finally waking up against this rotten system.”In the NBC News interview, Khanna repeatedly invoked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a guidepost for his populist views and desire to take on wealthy interests, while conceding that his progressive ideals won’t fully upend the MAGA coalition. But he believes he has a better theory of how to engage those voters than some recent — unnamed — Democratic presidential prospects.“Do I think somehow we’re going to win all of Trump’s voters? No. I’m not naive,” he said. “But I think that that has a better shot of winning than we’re just going to do Infrastructure 2.0.”Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
October 24, 2025
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 24, 2025, 5:01 AM EDTBy Andrew Greif and Rohan NadkarniThe arrests of two well-known NBA figures Thursday in a nationwide federal investigation into internal gambling and high-tech scam poker — especially a sitting head coach and former Finals Most Valuable Player — have roiled the league, from players to front offices to agents, sources told NBC News.The arrests, particularly that of Hall of Famer and Portland head coach Chauncey Billups, altered the tenor of this week’s conversations around the NBA, whose new season had started only two days earlier.The mood, a front office executive for one team said, went from fanfare to “fear.”Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups after his federal court appearance in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 23, 2025.Jenny Kane / AP“Who else is involved?” the executive said. “It’s a nightmare for the league.”Reactions to the extraordinary news spread quickly, ranging from surprise to anger at the league itself, according to five people who work inside or closely with the NBA, all of whom were granted anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the matter.“Surprised they got caught,” a player agent said. “But not surprised, as [gambling] is happening everywhere.”Terry Rozier was indicted as part of an investigation into insider sports betting. A separate investigation into what law enforcement officials described as Mafia-organized rigged poker games led to charges for Billups. Jones was named in both indictments.“Shocking day,” Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who is also the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association, said Thursday before a game. Carlisle said he contacted Billups and his representatives to ask how Billups was doing but did not hear back. FBI: Mafia involved in NBA gambling scandal02:52“This is a very serious situation,” Carlisle said. “The irony, I guess, from my perspective, was yesterday was a day when our general counsel came down and read us all the regulations on gambling and warned our coaching staff, our players, our support staff about all these different things.”Billups’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.Jones, in addition to the rigged poker games, was also accused of disclosing privileged information to bettors about the injury status of a player before a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks in February 2023. That player was LeBron James, according to multiple reports, though he is not named in the indictment or accused of any wrongdoing. Jones was also accused of telling the same bettors on Jan. 15, 2024, that another Lakers player would miss the game because of injury, before that knowledge was public. The only player fitting the indictment’s description is Anthony Davis. Coach Damon Jones looks on during the 2025 G League Elite Camp in Chicago on May 11.Jeff Haynes / NBAE via Getty Images fileBillups, while he is not named in the Rozier indictment, is seemingly implicated, however. The indictment refers to a person named “Co-Conspirator 8,” who is described as an Oregon resident who played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and has been a coach since 2021. (Billups was drafted in 1997 and last played in 2014, and he became a head coach in 2021.)Co-Conspirator 8 is accused of giving bettors inside information about a Trail Blazers game in March 2023, when Billups was their head coach. Co-Conspirator 8 is alleged to have told another defendant in the case that Portland would be “tanking” the game and that several of the team’s players would be held out with injuries. Other defendants in the case are alleged to have used the information to place bets against the Trail Blazers.The “fear” from the potential fallout, or expansion, of the investigations came after FBI Director Kash Patel said at a news conference that investigations into gambling continue and Christopher Reya, an FBI assistant director in charge of the New York field office, called the indictments “just the tip of the iceberg.”The league has dealt with gambling scandals before. Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors was banned for life last year for violating the league’s gambling rules after a league investigation determined he had disclosed information about his participation to bettors for financial gain. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court and is set to be sentenced in December. Last season, the NBA said in a statement that it was aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office related to Rozier.Official: Investigation into alleged gambling scheme dubbed ‘Operation Royal Flush’01:47A culture of gambling has existed in the NBA for years, multiple people said. Inside locker rooms, it is not uncommon to hear discussions of a recent game of poker or bourré, a trick-taking card game similar to spades that is popular among basketball players. A longtime team employee said that wagering and the competition that fueled it were so pervasive that nearly every team flight he was on had multiple high-dollar games taking place at once, often one between players and another between coaches. J.J. Redick, the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach, who also played in the league for 15 years, once told a story on his podcast about nearly coming to blows with a teammate because of gambling. After he referred to bourré as the “greatest gambling game” because of how the pot can grow “exponentially,” Redick said “the closest I ever came to a teammate punching me” was over a card game on a team flight. In January 2010, former All-Star Gilbert Arenas was arrested in violation of gun control laws after he and a teammate, Javaris Crittenton, took firearms to the Washington Wizards’ locker room as a result of a gambling dispute. Arenas has since said the dispute started over a game of bourré. (Arenas avoided jail time but was sentenced to two years of supervised probation in that case.)A league source told NBC News it is not uncommon for players to separate into different groups based on their salaries. A younger player, for example, may not gamble right away with a superstar on a max contract. But as salaries have increased in the NBA — the league’s highest-paid player will make over $59 million this season — the stakes on team flights have only gotten higher. Outside of flights, players also often set up with or are invited to high-stakes poker games, with cities such as Los Angeles and Houston cited as popular for gamblers, according to a source. (Arenas was arrested in July as part of a separate Justice Department investigation into illegal poker games in the Los Angeles area. He has pleaded not guilty.)Redick, who has coached the Lakers since 2024, told reporters Thursday that the team had gone through meetings that day about the league’s anti-gambling rules. “It’s obviously on the front of everyone’s awareness,” Redick said. Although gambling and the NBA have long been intertwined, Thursday’s arrests put the league on a different type of alert, an agent said, because it involved not lower-level players but Rozier, who has made more than $150 million in his career, and someone with the stature of Billups, a former NBA Finals MVP who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame only last year and is widely respected around the league. The Trail Blazers deferred comment to the NBA and announced that an assistant coach, Tiago Splitter, would assume head coaching responsibilities. The NBA first investigated Rozier after it was alerted in March 2023 to what a league spokesperson later said was unusual betting activity related to his performance. Such bets on individual occurrences during games, not on the outcomes of the games themselves — called “prop bets” — have become extremely popular. Concerned that such bets could also give players incentives to manipulate their performances for financial gain after Porter was banished last year, the NBA last year persuaded sportsbooks to no longer offer “under” bets for players on 10-day or two-way contracts, who generally make the least amount of money. Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, told NBC News on Thursday that Rozier had been “cleared by the NBA.” The league never went quite that far publicly, however, saying in January 2024 only that its investigation “did not find a violation of NBA rules.” Asked at a news conference in July about the NBA’s investigation and whether he was comfortable with the findings, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged that federal investigators “have more resources at their disposal than the league office does when we do an investigation.”However, because many interpreted Rozier to have been cleared by the league, only to be arrested later, a high-ranking team executive said Thursday that he was concerned that “people will lose faith in the NBA’s ability to investigate these things.” The executive added that he, too, had become dubious about what the NBA’s investigatory arm would turn up from investigations it handles or outsources to outside law firms, such as the ongoing probe into whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the salary cap.“This thing is not about Terry Rozier or Chauncey Billups,” the executive said. “It’s about that we trust the NBA to uphold the integrity of what’s happening on the basketball court.” The NBA said in a statement Thursday that it continues to review federal indictments and allegations, which it took “with the utmost seriousness.” Billups was arrested less than nine hours after Portland’s season-opening season-opening loss at home, a game notably attended by the team’s current owner and a financier in the process of buying the franchise. Billups was asked whether the change in ownership added pressure to his job.“I do the best I can,” he said, “and let the chips fall where they may.”Andrew GreifAndrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital. Rohan NadkarniRohan Nadkarni is a sports reporter for NBC News. 
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved