A video has gone viral showing Los Angeles Clippers fans chanting "F-B-I" when Portland Trail Blazers players attempted free throws during Sunday's game.
Footage of the moment, shared by The Washington Post national NBA writer Ben Golliver, comes less than a week after then Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested for his alleged involvement in a Mafia-backed underground poker rigging scheme. Billups allegedly served as a "face card" who would lure unsuspecting gamblers into rigged high-stakes poker games that cheated victims out of millions of dollars.
Billups' attorney Chris Heywood released a statement, vowing to "fight these allegations with the same tenacity that marked his 28-year career."
"Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others," reads the statement, obtained by CBS Sports. "To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game."
The Trail Blazers placed Billups on leave following his arrest.
The Clippers are embroiled in an investigation of its own, stemming from a string of bombshell reports from Pablo Torre, who shed light on a $28 million endorsement deal between Kawhi Leonard and the "tree brokerage" company Aspiration where the NBA star was required to do practically nothing.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and other high-ranking officials within the organization are suspected of funneling money to Leonard through Aspiration.