Kevin Garnett Bamboozled by Former Wolves Teammate?

The talk of the NBA over the past two days has not been the start of the regular season, which tipped off earlier this week. Instead, every league talking point over the last 36 hours has revolved around non-basketball buzzwords like feds, mafia, money and illegal gambling arrests.

Arguably the most notable NBA name involved is former Minnesota Timberwolves point guard, Chauncey Billups, whose Portland Trail Blazers lost their season opener Wednesday night against… you guessed it, the Wolves, where he played from 2000-2002.

Shortly after, the fifth-year Blazers head coach was arrested by the FBI on illegal gambling charges that are straight out of a futuristic Mafia movie, involving X-Ray glasses/contacts, celebrity scams and elaborate schemes to scam unknowing victims out of their money via underground rigged poker games.

Gambling scandal adds Kevin Garnett’s name to circus

But on Friday, Journalist Pablo Torre — who was all over the gambling scandal involving former MN Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley during the offseason — reports that Chauncey Billups and his Mafia buddies may have also reeled the greatest Wolves player of all time (for now), Kevin Garnett, with his scheme.

While Torre’s report doesn’t go that far, it does indeed say that KG was present during at least one of these phony poker events held by Billups and others indicted by what authorities have dubbed “Operation Royal Flush”, along with alleged cohort Damon Jones, presently an assistant in Cleveland.

🚨 UPDATE: A number of former pro athletes played at private poker games organized by those indicted by the DOJ in “Operation Royal Flush.”

One of them — according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of a game that took place in 2019 — was Kevin Garnett. @pablofindsout https://t.co/9UEijIez8R

— Pablo Torre 👀 (@PabloTorre) October 24, 2025

Billups and Jones — who were known as “face cards” in the scheme — allegedly used their celebrity to lure victims into playing high-stakes poker games that were actually rigged, according to the indictment. “Cheating teams” set up an elaborate scheme involving technology that would alert the co-conspirator players to the cards on the table, allowing them to get an edge on the victims. The organizers allegedly used X-ray tables, glasses that enabled the showing of marked cards and technology that allowed a remote member of the team to let others know the cards in play, according to the indictment.

Doug Greenberg – ESPN

MN Timberwolves legend a victim or suspect?

Based on Torre’s tweet, it sounds like Garnett may have been a victim of Billups’ scheme, where he essentially had his money unknowingly stolen. It’s also possible KG knowingly participated in the operation, using his celebrity to help lure victims in.

Either way we’ll likely find out on the next episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. In total, 30 people have been arrested by the FBI, as part of their investigation, which spans beyond whatever poker scams Billups and Jones were allegedly operating.

Related: MN Timberwolves Have a New Starting Point Guard

NBA wing Terry Rozier was also arrested in relation to the FBI’s “operation “Operation Royal Flush” though he is being accused of fixing personal stat lines to pay off bets, not these poker games