Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal weighed in on the NBA betting scandal during “Inside the NBA” on Thursday night, and neither Hall of Fame player minced words.
Several people connected to the NBA were arrested on Thursday morning as part of an FBI investigation into multiple illegal gambling rings. Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups is facing charges related to rigged high-stakes poker games that were organized with the help of Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested for his alleged involvement in “a scheme to defraud by betting on inside, non-public information about NBA athletes and teams” between December 2022 and December 2024. Former Cleveland Cavaliers player and coach Damon Jones has been charged in both cases.
The “Inside the NBA” crew, now on ESPN, discussed the situation prior to tip-off of the network’s coverage of the Denver Nuggets-Golden State Warriors game. Kenny Smith spoke about how gambling addiction can cause people to make “illogical decisions.” Barkley took offense to that and said Rozier, Jones and other who try to manipulate NBA games are “stupid.”
“Man, this ain’t got nothing to do with damn gambling addiction. This ain’t got nothing to do with addiction. These dudes are stupid,” Barkley said. “Under no circumstances can you fix basketball games, under no circumstances. I love to gamble. Rozier makes $26 million (per year). Him giving people information or taking himself out of games — how much is he gonna benefit from taking himself out of the game to get unders? He’s making $26 million. He took himself out of games on prop bets. How much money is he gonna make?”
Kenny Smith on the NBA betting scandal: "We have to realize gambling is an addiction. The addiction of it is what makes you make illogical decisions…"
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 23, 2025
Charles Barkley: "That's not addiction. That's stupidity… You can't fix basketball games… That's just total… pic.twitter.com/0z27urhGw1
Shaq’s opinion seemed to align more with Barkley’s. The four-time NBA champion said he knows both Billups and Jones personally and that he is “ashamed” for them.
“I know Chauncey. I know Damon very well and I played with Damon, so I don’t want to sit up here, but I’m ashamed that those guys would put their families and their careers in jeopardy,” O’Neal said. “There’s an old saying in the hood: ‘All money ain’t good money.’ So, if you’re making $9 million and you’re dealing in certain things, how much more do you need, especially if you know you can get caught? You can do jail time, lose your career, put a bad image on yourself and your family or on the NBA. I agree with you, Chuck, they dropped the ball. You never want to have your name involved in that when you know the letter of the law.”
"I'm ashamed that those guys would put their families and their careers in jeopardy."@SHAQ reacts to the arrest of Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones in a sports gambling investigation. pic.twitter.com/J8XtbpMqKI
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 23, 2025
Barkley is an avid gambler. The point he seemed to be making is that having a gambling addiction doesn’t excuse doing something as dumb as fixing a certain outcome in an NBA game. That is exactly what Rozier has been charged with. Jones also allegedly used inside information (including some about LeBron James) to illegally profit from wagers.
As Shaq mentioned, the NBA goes out of its way to educate players on what they need to avoid when it comes to gambling. Rozier and Jones obviously were confident they would never get caught.
