Gilbert Arenas seemingly takes issue with the way that the media is framing the recent arrests of Chauncy Billups and Terry Rozier in the FBI’s gambling investigation involving the NBA.
The former NBA star, who previously joked about cooperating with authorities for the investigation, addressed his thoughts about who’s at the center of the media’s coverage during in an episode of Gil’s Arena. “I see the word ‘Mafia,’ but the only faces I see are negroes,” said Arenas. “It makes you go, wait a minute. What’s going on here?”
Arenas made it clear that he has nothing to do with the gambling scandal that has come to become the talk of the NBA right as the new season started. ”Two of them n****as is gambling on the NBA,” he said. “One is throwing poker games and robbing his friends. It ain’t got shit to do with me.”
Later, Arenas joked about why he wouldn’t want to get on the mafia’s bad side. “I watch enough movies to know that the last group you want to snitch on is the mafia,” he said. “I watch Dateline. They ain’t found people since 1947. I like my YouTube career.”
Arenas' comments came a few hours after FBI Director Kash Patel announced that more than 30 people were arrested due to a years-long illegal gambling and fraud probe that spanned 11 states, involving both poker rigging operations and sports betting.
Detroit Pistons Head Coach Billups and Miami Heat player Rozier were two of the people who faced federal charges, including wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering.
Back in July, Arenas was arrested due to allegations of high-stakes illegal poker games. He was named in a federal indictment with five other defendants of operating illegal high-stakes poker games.
At the time, Arenas jokingly suggested that he was “snitching” — but he later cleared it up on a livestream where he clarified that his remarks weren’t serious.
