On Thursday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel held a press conference announcing charges against Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier. If you were watching ESPN or FS1, there’s a good chance you likely didn’t even know it.
The latest on Billups and Rozier
Authorities announced Thursday that Billups, and Rozier have been arrested as part of a pair of wide-ranging investigations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia. Former NBA guard and coach Damon Jones was also among a total of 34 people arrested.
Currently, Billups is the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, a team he coached just last night. Meanwhile, Rozier just began his second season with the Miami Heat.
Both ESPN and FS1 refused to cover the press conference live, while news networks like FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC carried the announcement from Patel in real time.
If you were looking for news updates on the story throughout the day from the sports networks, it would’ve been hard to find and questionable at best.
ESPN exposed for lack of coverage on FBI arrests
While the story was briefly being discussed by Mike Greenberg this morning on Get Up, the network’s ticker removed an advertisement for ESPN Bet in the middle of his report.
ESPN slick removed the sports ticker that was showing their betting site during this segment about the FBI investigations 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/xBQsHqUYaf
— A ✩ (@adryanashton) October 23, 2025
After Get Up on ESPN’s First Take, Last Word on Sports’ TJ Rives was quick to point out on X, that the network didn’t even mention the story from 10:00-10:35am ET, while the press conference was unfolding.
ESPN First Take ran for 35 minutes from 10:00 a.m. to 10:35 never mentioning the story once, while the live press conference was unfolding. That’s what he’s referring to
— TJ Rives (@BucSidelineGuy) October 23, 2025
It was also noted on X by the Gunz that First Take spent the first segment during the press conference using Mina Kimes to discuss Aaron Rodgers’ upcoming matchup against the Packers.
This is what First Take aired during the first segment while Kash was talking. 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/SxcyjB45lc
— Gunz (@TheGunzShow) October 23, 2025
Another user on X Preston Feiler, criticized the network for being tone deaf as he was hoping to hear the latest on Chauncey Billups, and Terry Rozier, instead hearing a discussion about the latest betting odds for Victor Wembanyama’s chances to win the NBA’s MVP award.
I turned on ESPN just after 10 am trying to get the latest on the Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier NBA arrests and this is what was on the screen during @GetUpESPN. Totally tone deaf talking about placing bets on a sport that has a major ongoing scandal. @Espngreeny pic.twitter.com/8yuWK5qbBk
— Preston Feiler (@phfeiler) October 23, 2025
Meanwhile over on FS1, instead of airing Patel’s press conference, the network opted instead to show a re-air of their Wake Up Barstool program.
Is sports journalism dead?
FS1 has never been a leader in the breaking news space, but the same can’t be said for ESPN. For years, ESPN prided themselves as a legit journalistic entity, with respected programs like Outside the Lines, E:60, The Sports Reporters, just to name a few. Fast-forward to 2025, and the network refuses to carry a press conference for one of the biggest sports scandals of the year.
