Former NBA guard and assistant coach Damon Jones was one of many to be charged in relation to a large gambling indictment filed last year. Now he will be among the first (and perhaps not last) to plead guilty.
According to recent court filings via CBS, Jones intends to change his not guilty plea to guilty on charges of selling sports gambling insider information. Jones and others have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
There is some dispute over this, as Jones' lawyer reportedly told ABC News that he is not cooperating at this time.
Nevertheless, Jones has requested a change-of-plea hearing. He pled not guilty back on November 6, 2025.
The Indictment
Per CBS, the indictment against Jones and co-defendants states that the accused "participated in a scheme to defraud the Betting Companies by providing, obtaining and using non-public information relating to NBA games to place and cause others to place fraudulent sports wagers for profit, and to launder the proceeds thereof."
One of the pieces of evidence is a text Jones sent to the his alleged co-conspirators tipping them off to allegedly crucial injury information that could have been used in a Lakers-Bucks game in 2023 to help make sports bets. It's been speculated that LeBron James was the injured player he tipped them off about.
Jones played pro basketball for about 15 years and was a teammate to LeBron James on the Cleveland Cavaliers for several. He went into coaching in 2015 and joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant for their 2016 NBA championship season.
