The NBA has a big mess on its hands in the federal gambling investigation.

Somebody check on Adam Silver. The whiplash he must have from what's taken place in the NBA over the last 12 hours could be severe.

When he went to sleep last night, the future of the NBA couldn't seem brighter after Victor Wembanyama wowed in his season debut with 40 points to set the San Antonio Spurs franchise record for an opener. When he woke up, the league was on fire.

Today is a rough day to be commissioner of the NBA.

An active player, an active coach and a former player were all arrested Thursday morning in connection to what the FBI called "an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation spanning years" and "tens of millions of dollars in fraud." It involves two separate cases with three overlapping defendants, including former Cleveland Cavaliers guard and assistant coach Damon Jones, and Shane Hennen, an alleged co-conspirator in the related Jontay Porter case.

Also arrested in one of the cases was Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, in connection to what was described as an insider sports betting conspiracy. Hall of Famer and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested in the other case, which involved the alleged rigging of illegal poker games backed by the New York crime families.

FBI gambling probe: Latest on arrests of NBA stars

If the NBA didn't have a gambling problem before, it has a massive one now. This entire thing is a mess that won't be easy to clean up. In June, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the NBA cleared Rozier of any wrongdoing. That apparently didn't apply to the federal investigation, which has turned up more than any of us could have imagined. Chauncey Billups?? The mafia?! And we still don't have an update on what's going on with the Malik Beasley.

This is a developing story, so there's a lot more to digest on this. Especially with charges filed and these cases moving into court, we're going to learn so much over the next few months about what potentially took place. Regardless of the findings, legal sports betting is proving to be worth more trouble than it was worth for the NBA.

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This article originally appeared on For The Win: The NBA's gambling problem is even worse than we thought

Reporting by Prince J. Grimes, For The Win / For The Win

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