Stephen A. Smith is Saying the FBI Arrested Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier Because 'Trump is Coming' for the NBA

There are moments like right now that serve as a reminder that professional sports are a house of cards built on a wobbly table. Except those metaphoric house is made from virtual cards that are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And that abstract table holding it up is the interest of the vast majority of the public. Granted, that stack has held up through countless scandals. Boxers taking dives. The Black Sox throwing the 1919 World Series. Paul Hornung. Alex Karras. Pete Rose. Boston College basketball. Boston College football. Tim Donaghy. And don't get me started about the damage done to the sport of kings in 2002 when judges got caught trading favors in the Figure Skating events at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. I can't afford to get wound up right now. 

And yet through all of those scandals and dozens of others, sports have only gotten bigger. And legalized wagering has accelerated the growth and popularity of all of them. 

So it is that the FBI charging active duty NBA figures with consorting with literal mobsters is a conundrum for the networks that cover the league. ESPN most especially, since after Monday Night Football, pro basketball is their second biggest property. They can't ignore it. But they can't cover it to the point they damage the NBA brand and have to go back to filling air time with Cornhole tournaments like they did during Covid. 

For his part, Shaq is doing the "I'm not so much angry as I am, well ... disappointed" thing that used to kill me when my sainted mom said it:

While Charles Barkley isn't shying away from asking hard questions:

But the pundit who is unquestionably the leading voice of the NBA on ESPN, certainly in its daytime programming is Stephen A. Smith. And he wasted no time identifying the culprit in all of this. Not just a Person of Interest, but the Prime Suspect. This guy:

James Devaney. Getty Images.

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"You know what world we’re living in in terms of politics. How many times with one incident after another? Trump is coming. He’s coming. I’m going to say it on national television again. … Remember, Trump has a long, long history connected to the world of sports because he had those casinos. Where do you think those folks were coming half the time? I’m not talking about the individuals. I’m talking about the culture.

"Don’t be surprised if the WNBA is next on his list. Because when you got all of these protesters that have been going out there and people who have been protesting against him and what have you, this man is coming. He’s coming. And I’ve been saying it for a long time. To me, this is the latest nugget of evidence that we’re talking about right here. It’s not to question the legitimacy of the case. We don’t know. But anybody that’s been around him, anybody that has talked to him, anybody that has seen his reactions from the sports leagues and the positions that people have taken, they are not surprised at what’s going on today. 

"It’s not coincidental. It’s not an accident. It’s a statement. And it’s a warning that more is coming, and that’s what they’re saying here."

So it would appear that the World Wide Leader has softened its stance on their hosts not talking politics. Because Stephen A. only doubled down on his podcast:

Well OK, then. A fair point. I don't remember the FBI director calling a press conference to announce Donaghy was shaving points in NBA games. Therefore this can only be the President of the United States going Broken Arrow and coming to nuke pro basketball. Men's and women's. Trump is the Caporegime of the Crime Family behind all this, and he's going to the mattresses to settle all family business. And Smith isn't ruling out that once these scores are settled, the NFL is next on the hit list.

Big, if true. 

Far be it for me to argue Smith is wrong here. I can't claim to have the knowledge or the inside sources he does. Hell, the man is considering a run for President himself, and I couldn't even make Hall Monitor at Ralph Talbot Elementary. So who am I to question his assumptions? 

A couple of points of order however, if I may. One, Smith argues that neither Billups or Rozier are superstars, so why the press conference? I guess you could make a case about Scary Terry. But he's not a nobody. He makes $26.6 million a year and over $160 million over the course of his career. So him being accused of telling a few people he was going to tap out of a game 9 minutes in so they could bet accordingly is newsworthy. Whereas Billups is a Hall of Famer.  And there were more than 30 arrests made, most of them involving Mafia members. If that's not going to get a the lead of a federal alphabet agency to stand behind a podium, I don't know what could. 

Second, Patel said this investigation has been going on for years. Again, I don't have the command of the facts that Stephen A. does, but I do have access to a calendar. And by my math, this investigation was started under the last President, while Patel was writing books and Trump was having his own problems with getting indicted. So if the goal has been to tear down the Association, the Godfather he's looking for is Don Biden. 

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Finally, in order to accept this theory, you have to ignore one basic aspect of who Trump is: A raging narcissist. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing. Just that his supporters and his haters can agree he's a guy who craves public approval. All politicians do. And the quickest way to lose widespread support is to take away the things people like. Even the worst Roman Emperors like Caligula and Commodus understood they could be as corrupt as they wanted to be and still win over the masses by giving them Bread and Circus. Any President who once owned a USFL team and is putting on a UFC event on the White House lawn isn't going to take away a multibillion dollar sports league. Even if he could. And I'm not aware of any provisions in the Constitution that provides the Executive Branch with that authority. 

But you keep doing you, ESPN and Stephen A. 

PS. Now would be a great time for the FBI to investigate whether the Mavericks winning the Draft Lottery and getting Cooper Flagg was on the level. A lot of us have questions.