Damon Jones: From the Courts to the Bench and to Scandal
During the 2006-07 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ parking lot was a spectacle. Among the luxury cars, LeBron James’ Ferrari F430 Spider Grigio Silverstone stood out. But a customized Mercedes with the license plate “4Point8” could also be seen. This was Damon Jones’ car.
Jones, a Cavaliers player between 2005 and 2008, was known for his flashy cars, elegant suits (often with animal-print jackets), and his constant chatter. The license plate “4Point8” referred to the time remaining on the clock when he made the most important shot of his career: an overtime jumper on May 5, 2006, which secured the victory in the first-round series against the Washington Wizards. It was the Cavs’ first playoff series win in 13 years.
Jones’s confidence in his abilities was unwavering, and he was rarely affected by failure or jokes. He was the perfect companion for the game and off the court, which earned him the friendship of many teammates, including stars like James, Shaquille O’Neal, and Chauncey Billups.
Jones, a classic globetrotter, played on nine teams in his first nine years in the NBA. He was an uninhibited showman. He used to lift his leg to protect himself when pressured while bringing the ball up the court and, after scoring a three-pointer, he used to place one flat hand under the other with three fingers raised, as if offering the three-pointer “on a platter”.
In September 2005, Jones signed a four-year, $16 million contract with the Cavaliers, after a season with the Miami Heat, where he averaged 43% shooting from three-point range, receiving passes from O’Neal and Dwyane Wade. The Cavs hired him to play the same role alongside James.
“Without being arrogant, I think I’m one of the top five shooters in the world. The top five are me as a rookie, me in years 2-4, me in year 5, me in year 7”.
Damon JonesBut Jones was also a gambler. He regularly participated in card games after training, on team flights, and in hotel rooms during trips. “Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. He always talked,” says a former teammate. “Most of the time it was harmless.”
Maybe not anymore. Last month, Jones was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. Prosecutors allege that he leaked non-public information to sports bettors when he was a volunteer member of the Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff in 2023 and, in a separate but related case, participated in a scheme linked to the mafia to run rigged poker games. He pleaded not guilty to both charges on November 8.
“There are probably some people very worried about Damon right now,” said a league executive who used to have Jones on his roster. “He has nothing to lose or negotiate with, other than to rat on other people.”
The two federal cases charged 34 people, and prosecutors said their investigations would continue and possibly expand. There are still two unidentified conspirators in the cases who are described as former NBA players. The cases grew, in part, due to the cooperation of the defendants in a separate case related to gambling involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter.
Jones earned more than $21 million in his NBA career, but those close to him suspect he spent it almost as quickly as he earned it. After playing 373 games over a span of five years, from 2003 to 2008, his career suddenly declined, playing only 18 games in the 2008-09 season and being out of the league at age 32.
After his retirement, Jones’ shooting skills and personality provided him with opportunities as a coach and in the media. He worked as a shooting consultant and then as an assistant coach with the Cavs and their G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, from 2014 to 2018, including their 2016 championship team. He also appeared on television.
His personality and his penchant for provocations never waned. In a classic example, in 2018, Cavs guard J.R. Smith was suspended for a game for throwing a bowl of chicken tortilla soup at Jones in the team’s training facility cafeteria. Smith later said he did it to teach Jones a lesson for talking too much.
His tendency to overspend also didn’t diminish, despite no longer earning an NBA salary. Several friends and former employees say that Jones habitually asked them for loans after his playing career ended. During his time as a coach in Cleveland, Jones used to stay in the guest room of another of the team’s coaches, according to sources.
“Honestly, I started trying to avoid him,” said a former NBA player. “Because I didn’t want to have conversations about money.” Another lifelong friend said: “My wife and I made the decision that I had to stop answering his calls and returning his texts a couple of years ago. We had reached the end of the line because of the money.”
Between 2013 and 2024, Jones declared bankruptcy twice, was sued at least four times for unpaid personal loans, and, on two occasions, a Houston management company filed eviction notices against him, according to NBC News.
Jones and his wife filed for bankruptcy for the first time in 2013. In court documents, he included a $10,000 Nike endorsement as his only income in six months and said that he and his family had $200 in cash, less than $300 in bank accounts, and approximately $2,400 in an IRA. That case was dismissed.
Two years later, when Jones and his wife declared bankruptcy again, they reported in a court filing that they had $50 in cash and less than $50 in the bank. That case was also dismissed.
Jones was employed as a shooting consultant by the Cavs, where he earned about $4,000 a month. Jones and his wife, according to records, owed creditors $644,109. Some of Jones’s largest debts, according to records, were a $86,000 car loan on a Mercedes and $47,000 to the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where Jones was known to frequent in the NBA offseasons.
In one of the personal loan cases, Jones allegedly used his 2016 Cavs championship ring as collateral.
At the beginning of this month, Jones’s mother and stepfather pledged their Houston home to guarantee his $200,000 bail.Ilustración de ESPNJones maintained an intermittent friendship with James for years after they were teammates in Cleveland. James, known for having a closed circle, is usually very selective about who he lets in. Jones was on the Cavs from 2005 to 2008 and, unofficially, was part of the Lakers staff in the 2022-23 season, presumably due to James’s comfort level with him.
“LeBron is very fond of routines,” said a former Lakers staff member. “For a while, shooting with D-Jones was part of his routine.” Jones regularly traveled with the Lakers, attended practices, and had access to the locker room and training rooms, according to sources. And, as was his custom, he apparently also played with them.
One of the traits of the Lakers team the year Jones was on the staff, reported The Los Angeles Times in 2023, was their “freeze” gesture after scoring big three-pointers, which arose from an inside joke related to Jones’s antics when he won a big hand playing cards.
The accusations say the FBI found evidence that Jones sold information about the availability of Lakers players to bettors in both 2023 and 2024. The accusation does not reveal which players were involved, but the details suggest that it involved James once and then Lakers star teammate Anthony Davis the other.
In court documents, prosecutors say the FBI discovered a text message from Jones to one of the bettors in which he encouraged them to place a large bet on the Milwaukee Bucks in a game in which James was not expected to play.
“Make a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is released! [James] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat now too!”
James didn’t know that Jones was leaking information about his condition, according to multiple sources close to the player. At the time of the accusations, James and Jones had not spoken for an extended period, according to sources. The fight with James was hard on Jones, both personally and for his job prospects, he told several people in recent years.
Jones and his lawyer have rejected all interview requests since his arrest and did not respond to questions when entering or leaving the Brooklyn courthouse earlier this month.
For someone who was seeking attention and working to profit from it, it’s a drastic change in the way they had lived their life.
“My confidence has never left, never in my life,” Jones said in 2008. “I usually come out the other side smelling like roses.”
