Brian WindhorstNov 24, 2025, 06:30 AM ET
Shut
ESPN.com NBA author since 2010
Lined Cleveland Cavs for seven years
Creator of two books
IF YOU PASSED via the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ players parking lot during the 2006-07 season, you almost certainly would’ve seen LeBron James‘ Ferrari F430 Spider in its sparkling Grigio Silverstone paint. But you also would’ve doubtless seen a custom-made Mercedes with the license plate 4Point8.
That was Damon Jones‘ automotive.
As a member of the Cavaliers from 2005 to 2008, Jones owned and drove lovely automobiles, wore eye-catching fits — usually with animal print jackets he (jokingly?) claimed had been actual — and talked infinite trash.
The specialised license plate was a reference to the time left on the clock when Jones made the largest shot of his profession, an additional time jumper on Could 5, 2006, to seal a Recreation 6 and first-round sequence win over the Washington Wizards. It was the Cavs’ first playoff sequence win in 13 years.
Jones’ religion in his abilities was unwavering and he was largely unaffected by failure or being the butt of a joke. That the enduring clip of his profession was getting dunked on by James in 2005 is suitable, as is his now decades-long assertion that he was the sufferer of an offensive foul on the play.
You would dunk on him, play playing cards with him, make enjoyable of him and snigger with him. And, on the ground, you may cross to him and there was a very good likelihood he would make the shot.
It was the proper recipe to be a sidekick shooter and off-court companion. And it’s why he made pals with loads of teammates alongside the way in which, together with stars comparable to James, Shaquille O’Neal and, fellow defendant in a federal playing case, Chauncey Billups.
Jones performed with 9 groups in his first 9 years within the NBA. A basic journeyman. He was additionally an unabashed showman.
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When opponents would strain him as he introduced the ball up the courtroom — which was routinely within the sport plan due to Jones’ weak ballhandling — he would usually kick his leg wildly into the air to repel them. In one in every of his trademark routines, when he would make a 3-pointer, he would maintain one hand flat below the opposite hand holding three fingers up as a result of he had delivered the triple “on a platter.”
In September 2005, Jones lastly received a long-term deal when he signed a four-year, $16 million contract with the Cavaliers, coming off a season with the Miami Warmth by which he’d shot 43% from deep, receiving passes from O’Neal and a 23-year-old Dwyane Wade.
The Cavs signed him to play the identical position alongside James.
He was additionally a gambler.
Jones was a daily in card video games after practices, on staff flights and round tables in lodge suites on highway journeys.
“Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. He always talked,” one former teammate says. “Most of the time he was a good hang. He was mostly harmless.”
Maybe not anymore.
LAST MONTH, JONES was indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
Prosecutors allege he leaked personal data to sports activities bettors when he was a voluntary member of the Los Angeles Lakers teaching employees in 2023 and, in a separate however associated case, with collaborating in a Mafia-tied scheme to run rigged poker video games.
He pleaded not responsible to each counts on Nov. 8.
Billups, Rozier amongst 34 arrested by FBI
Right here’s what it’s essential know concerning the arrests that rocked the NBA:
• FAQ: Answering 22 questions on the instances• Timeline: Sports activities betting scandals since 2018• Windhorst: What to find out about Damon Jones• Fletcher: Sports activities mafia ties run deeper• Greenberg: How FBI says poker video games had been rigged
“There are probably some people out there pretty worried about Damon right now,” one longtime league government who used to have Jones on his roster mentioned. “He has nothing to lose and nothing to bargain with — other than rolling over on other people.”
The 2 federal instances indicted 34 folks and prosecutors mentioned their investigations would proceed and risk develop. There are nonetheless two unnamed conspirators within the instances which can be described as former NBA gamers.
The instances grew, partly, as a result of cooperation of these indicted in a separate gambling-related case involving former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter.
Jones made greater than $21 million in his NBA profession, however folks round him suspect he spent it almost as shortly as he made it.
Even by NBA requirements Jones appeared to teammates to spend above his station. After enjoying in 373 video games over a five-year span from 2003 to 2008, his profession tailed off out of the blue as he performed simply 18 video games within the 2008-09 season after which was out of the league at age 32.
In retirement, Jones’ capturing exploits and persona received him teaching and media alternatives. He labored as a capturing advisor after which an assistant coach with the Cavs and their G League affiliate, the Canton Cost, from 2014 to 2018, together with their 2016 championship staff. He appeared on tv as effectively, together with on ESPN.
His persona and penchant for trash-talking by no means dimmed. In a basic instance, in 2018 Cavs guard J.R. Smith was suspended for a sport by the Cavaliers after throwing a bowl of hen tortilla soup at Jones within the cafeteria on the staff’s apply facility.
Smith later mentioned he’d carried out so to show Jones a lesson about operating his mouth. “I thought about it. It wasn’t a rageful throw,” Smith mentioned on “The Old Man and the Three” podcast in 2023. “It was like, ‘OK, you’re playing with me. I know you’re playing with me. I’m gonna show you.’ I literally thought about it, and I threw it on him. He’s over there screaming because the s— is hot. I’m like, ‘See, you wanna stop playing with me now? You gonna stop playing?’”
His penchant for overspending by no means dimmed, both, regardless of not incomes an NBA wage. A number of pals and former coworkers say Jones routinely requested them for loans after his enjoying profession ended.
Throughout his time as a coach in Cleveland, Jones usually stayed within the visitor room of one other of the staff’s coaches, sources mentioned.
“Honestly, I started to try to avoid him,” one former NBA participant mentioned. “Because I didn’t want to have money conversations.”
Stated one other longtime buddy, “My wife and I came to a decision that I had to stop taking his calls and returning his texts a couple years ago. We’d reached the end of the line over money.”
Jones and his spouse first filed for chapter in 2013. In courtroom filings, he listed a $10,000 Nike endorsement as his solely earnings in six months and mentioned that he and his household had $200 in money, lower than $300 in financial institution accounts and roughly $2,400 in an IRA. That case was dismissed.
Two years later, when Jones and his spouse filed for chapter once more, they reported in a courtroom submitting that they’d $50 in money and fewer than $50 within the financial institution. That case, too, was dismissed.
Jones was then employed as a capturing advisor by the Cavs, the place he made about $4,000 a month. Jones and his spouse, based on information, owed collectors $644,109. A few of Jones’ greatest money owed, based on information, had been an $86,000 automotive mortgage on a Mercedes and $47,000 to the Bellagio Lodge and On line casino in Las Vegas, the place Jones was recognized to frequent in NBA offseasons.
In one of many private mortgage instances, Jones reportedly used his Cavs 2016 championship ring as collateral.
Earlier this month, Jones’ mom and stepfather pledged their Houston house to safe his $200,000 bond.
Illustration by ESPN
JONES DID MAINTAIN an off-and-on friendship with James for years after they had been teammates in Cleveland.
Recognized for having a good circle, James sometimes may be very selective about whom he allows. Jones was on the Cavs from 2005 to 2008, and, unofficially, part of the Lakers’ employees within the 2022-23 season, ostensibly due to James’ consolation degree with him.
“LeBron is very into routines,” one former Lakers staffer mentioned. “For a while, shooting with D-Jones was part of his routine.”
Jones routinely traveled with the Lakers, attended practices and had entry to the locker and coaching rooms, sources instructed ESPN. And, as was his customized, he apparently gambled with them as effectively.
One of many traits of the Lakers’ staff the 12 months Jones was on employees, the Los Angeles Occasions reported in 2023, was their “freeze” gesture made after hitting massive 3-pointers, which stemmed from an inside joke involving Jones’ antics when he received an enormous hand enjoying playing cards.
The indictments mentioned the FBI discovered proof that Jones offered details about Laker participant availability to gamblers in each 2023 and 2024.
The indictment doesn’t reveal which gamers had been concerned, however the particulars recommend it concerned James one time and then-star Laker teammate Anthony Davis the opposite.
Within the courtroom paperwork, the prosecutors say the FBI uncovered a textual content message from Jones to one of many gamblers by which he inspired an enormous guess on the Milwaukee Bucks in a sport by which James was not anticipated to play.
“Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [James] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat too now!!!”
James didn’t know Jones was leaking details about his standing, based on a number of sources near the participant.
On the time of the indictments, James and Jones had not been on talking phrases for an prolonged interval, sources mentioned. The falling out with James was exhausting on Jones, each personally and for his job prospects, he instructed a number of folks over the previous few years.
Jones and his lawyer have declined all interview requests since his arrest, and they didn’t reply to questions coming into or leaving the courthouse in Brooklyn earlier this month.
For somebody who sought the highlight and labored to revenue off of it, it’s a drastic change to how he’d lived his life.
“My confidence is never gone, never in my life,” Jones mentioned in 2008. “I usually come out on the other side smelling like roses.”
