DENVER BASKETBALL LEGEND CHAUNCY BILLUPS NABBED IN MAFIA X-RAY POKER STING; HE DENIES CHARGES

UPDATE

The FBI busted Denver basketball legend Chauncey Billups - now head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers - and others in a nationwide Mafia gambling scam employing X-ray poker card readers.

Mobsters lured gamblers lured into card games - in Las Vegas, Miami and New York - with promises of meeting and competing with professional athletes, the FBI alleged.

The elaborate, years-long scheme employed sophisticated technology - such as X-ray equipment built into the card tables, cameras tucked in poker trays and sci-fi sunglasses - to snoop on gamblers the mobsters called "fish."

Hall of Fame honoree Billups, 49, graduated from Denver's George Washington High School, where he was a four-time All-State first team pick. He went onto play at the University of Colorado, the Denver Nuggets and other NBA teams

A total of 34 people were charged in the card scam as well as a separate sports betting operation drawing on confidential information on NBA players and teams 

"Not only did we crack into the fraud these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra, to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese crime families," FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday.

Yahoo Sports reported Billups' lawyer, Chris Heywood, said: "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."

[Photos: Wikipedia]