Rozier and Billups will not receive NBA salaries while on leave in gambling cases, AP sources say

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NBA guard Terry Rozier and coach Chauncey Billups will not receive their salaries while on leave for their arrests on federal gambling-related charges, two people with knowledge of the matters told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Rozier had been due to receive the first installment of a $26.6 million annual salary with the Miami Heat later this week. That, and future installments, will be held pending resolution of his legal case, said the people, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the details were not released publicly.

If Rozier is cleared and allowed to return to the NBA, which placed him on leave hours after his Oct. 23 arrest, he could receive the held payments in full, one of the sources said.

The Heat will not receive any immediate salary cap relief by the NBA's decision, one of the sources said.

There are provisions in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement that allow the league, in certain situations, to place salary withheld from a player in an interest-bearing account.

Billups, the Portland coach who has also been placed on leave by the league after his arrest last week, is having his salary held by the Trail Blazers, one of the sources said. Billups is under contract into at least the 2026-27 season; the team announced that he agreed to a multiyear extension in April.

There was no immediate comment from either the Heat or the Trail Blazers.

The National Basketball Players Association indicated it would file a grievance on Rozier’s behalf.

“While we are in agreement with the league that upholding the integrity of the game is of the utmost importance, their decision to place Terry on leave without pay is counter to the presumption of innocence and inconsistent with the terms of our Collective Bargaining Agreement,” said an NBPA spokesperson. “We plan to challenge their decision via the proper channels.”

Meanwhile, Rozier's attorney said Wednesday that a federal lien filed with regard to the player's tax bill in 2021 was satisfied.

The Internal Revenue Service filed that lien against Rozier in November 2023, showing an “unpaid balance of assessment” of $8,218,211.70 for the 2021 tax year. But Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, said in an email to the AP that the actual amount owed to the IRS at that time was a sliver of that total.

“There was never a debt of $8 million,” Trusty wrote. “Out of his total taxes owed in 2021 ($8m) he actually owed $9000. That was paid but the now-defunct lien still needs to be pulled from the local courthouse.”

ESPN first reported the lien’s existence. The lien is a public record, and there is no publicly available document showing it has been removed.

Officials in Broward County, Florida — where the lien was filed — did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A call seeking information from an IRS revenue officer was unanswered. Revenue officers work for the IRS to collect delinquent taxes.

Rozier owns a home in Broward County and records show his property taxes have been paid in full each year. That property is about 30 miles from where the Heat play their home games.

Rozier was playing for the Charlotte Hornets during that 2021 tax year and is now on the Heat roster. He, Billups and nearly three dozen other individuals were arrested last week on gambling-related charges detailed in two separate indictments.

Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, has denied the allegations against his client.

Federal officials alleged that Rozier conspired with associates to help them win bets based on his statistical performance in a game when he was with the Hornets on March 23, 2023 — more than seven months before the lien was prepared and nearly eight months before it was formally filed. Rozier played sparingly in that game and gamblers who wagered that he would finish “under” certain statistical totals won those bets.

The charges against Rozier are similar to what former Toronto player Jontay Porter faced before he was banned from the league by Commissioner Adam Silver in 2024.

Rozier did not play in the final eight games of that 2022-23 season, with he and the Hornets citing a foot injury. The Hornets had several players injured at that time and were already eliminated from playoff contention.

Sportsbooks detected unusual patterns of wagers on the Charlotte game in question — prop bets involving Rozier were flagged and immediately brought to the NBA’s attention — and the league probed the matter but did not find enough evidence to conclude that Rozier broke any rules. The NBA, unlike federal law enforcement, does not have subpoena power.

Trusty has said Rozier is “not a gambler” and looks forward to winning the case.

The NBA said earlier this week that it is reviewing how sensitive information like injury reports — which are public and updated hourly — should be handled going forward. Members of the House and Senate have both asked the NBA for more information.

Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on that panel, wrote Silver this week seeking detail “about how the NBA investigated and handled these allegations" and why the NBA allowed Rozier to continue playing.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba