It was one of those sentences that kept getting stranger and stranger.

Chauncey Billups? Rigged poker games? La Cosa Nostra?

It looks like the legacy of the best basketball player to ever come from these hills is going to be severely tarnished.

Billups was arrested Thursday morning after a yearslong federal investigation into illegal gambling practices. It’s alleged Billups used his notoriety to help lure players to underground poker games that were rigged by the Italian mafia using hidden cameras, X-ray machines and other technology to fix the results and cheat gamblers out of millions of dollars in New York and Las Vegas. The 49-year-old coach of the Trail Blazers was placed on leave in the wake of his arrest.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said in a statement.

It all reads like a screenplay, not that many around here will want to watch. Billups champions his hometown. He’s a loud-and-proud Broncos fan. He founded the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy that helps young students develop character each summer at Regis University. The court at George Washington High School bears his name. His No. 4 jersey is one of the few hanging in the CU Events Center rafters.

Anyone questioning the Billups family’s popularity in Denver hasn’t attended a Trail Blazers-Nuggets game in recent years or watched Chauncey’s younger brother Rodney, now a Nuggets assistant, pose for photos with fans at the team’s open practice Sunday at Ball Arena. Whether Chauncey was leaving his press conference or walking to and from the visitor’s locker room to the court during his returns to Ball Arena, he happily made multiple stops to catch up with people who’ve been a part of his journey, which included helping Denver to the 2009 Western Conference finals in his second stint with the Nuggets. Denver fans showed their appreciation when Billups was introduced as Portland’s coach prior to tipoff.

The five-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA selection and Finals Most Valuable Player of the Pistons’ 2004 championship squad made his hometown proud over the course of a career that was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.

It’s too early to say how this all unfolds. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was also arrested for relaying inside information to bettors and helping manipulate the results, similar to what delivered a lifetime ban from the NBA to Jontay Porter, a brother of former Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. Former NBA guard and assistant Damon Jones was also arrested for selling privileged information to others.

There are also questions surrounding a 2023 game between the Trail Blazers and Bulls. Four of Portland’s starters were held out of that game, which ended in a 28-point Chicago victory. If that’s connected to Billups, an unbelievable and unbelievably sad day in Denver is about to get even wilder.