- Former NBA player Damon Jones was arrested as part of a federal gambling investigation.
- Jones and other former athletes, called ‘face cards,’ were allegedly used to entice victims.
- Jones played 11 seasons in the NBA for 10 different teams and later won a title as an assistantt coach.
Former NBA player Damon Jones was arrested Oct. 23 as a result of a federal gambling investigation, FBI director Kash Patel announced.
‘Beginning as early as 2019, the defendants in this case orchestrated a large-scale operation, coordinating the use of wireless cheating technology to rig poker games across the United States, including in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan,’ Patel said in a news conference Thursday. ‘The scheme specifically targeted victims, referred to as ‘fish,’ who were often enticed to participate in these rigged games by the opportunity to play alongside former professional athletes, known as ‘face cards,”
‘Among these face cards were Chauncey Billups, a former NBA player and currently the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Damon Jones, also a former NBA player and coach,’ Patel added. ‘What the victims, or ‘fish,’ did not realize was that everyone else at the poker game, from the dealer to the other players, including the face cards, was complicit in the scam.’
Here’s what to know about Jones, as the 49-year-old stands among the group of 30-plus people charged in the wide-ranging scandal.
Who is Damon Jones?
Jones is a former basketball player who played 11 seasons in the NBA. The 6-4 combo guard went undrafted out of Houston in 1997 after a four-year career with the Cougars and began his playing career with the International Basketball Association’s Black Hills Posse in 1997.
Jones eventually made his NBA debut in 1999 with the then-New Jersey Nets. He ended up playing for 10 different teams around the association but was most noted for his three-year stretch with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005-08.
Below is a look at Jones’ NBA timeline:
- New Jersey Nets (1999)
- Boston Celtics (1999)
- Golden State Warriors (1999)
- Dallas Mavericks (1999-2000)
- Vancouver Grizzlies (2000-01)
- Detroit Pistons (2001-02)
- Sacramento Kings (2002-03)
- Milwaukee Bucks (2003-04)
- Miami Heat (2004-05)
- Cleveland Cavaliers (2005-08)
- Milwaukee Bucks (2008-09)
Jones played overseas for a few seasons following his stint with the Bucks before finishing his professional basketball career in 2012 with the Reno Bighorns (now the Stockton Kings) of the NBA’s G League.
Damon Jones stats for playing career
Jones played in 114 career games across his 11-year playing career. Most of those came during the 2004-05 season, when he played 66 games for the Miami Heat.
Here’s a full look at Jones’ per-game stats from his NBA career:
- Points: 6.6
- Rebounds: 1.6
- Assists: 2.7
- Steals: 0.4
- Blocks: 0
- Field goal %: 40.7
- 3-point %: 39
Damon Jones coaching career
Jones spent three seasons coaching in the Cavaliers organization. He was an assistant for the G League’s Canton Charge for the 2015-16 campaign and then was a part of Tyronn Lue’s staff from 2016-18.
Lue elevated Jones to the Cleveland bench for the 2016 NBA playoffs. The Cavaliers won the championship that year, earning Jones his first and only NBA title.
Damon Jones net worth, career earnings
There is no concrete information about Jones’ net worth, but Basketball Reference reports he earned just over $21.7 million during his professional basketball career.
