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Brian Windhorst
IF YOU PASSED through the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ players parking lot during the 2006-07 season, you almost certainly would’ve noticed LeBron James‘ Ferrari F430 Spider in its sparkling Grigio Silverstone paint. But you also would’ve likely noticed a customized Mercedes with the license plate 4Point8.
That was Damon Jones‘ car.
As a member of the Cavaliers from 2005-08, Jones owned and drove beautiful cars, wore eye-catching suits — often with animal print jackets he (jokingly?) claimed were real — and talked endless trash.
The specialized license plate was a reference to the time left on the clock when Jones made the biggest shot of his career, an overtime jumper on May 5, 2006, to seal a Game 6 and first-round series win over the Washington Wizards. It was the Cavs’ first playoff series win in 13 years.
Jones’ faith in his skills was unwavering and he was mostly unaffected by failure or being the butt of a joke. That the enduring clip of his career was getting dunked on by James in 2005 is appropriate, as is his now decades-long assertion that he was the victim of an offensive foul on the play.
You could dunk on him, play cards with him, make fun of him and laugh with him. And, on the floor, you could pass to him and there was a good chance he’d make the shot.
It was the perfect recipe to be a sidekick shooter and off-court companion. And it’s why he made friends with plenty of teammates along the way, including stars such as James, Shaquille O’Neal and, fellow defendant in a federal gambling case, Chauncey Billups.
Jones played with nine teams in his first nine years in the NBA. A classic journeyman. He was also an unabashed showman.
When opponents would pressure him as he brought the ball up the court — which was routinely in the game plan because of Jones’ weak ballhandling — he’d often kick his leg wildly into the air to repel them. In one of his trademark routines, when he’d make a 3-pointer, he’d hold one hand flat under the other hand holding three fingers up because he’d delivered the triple «on a platter.»
In September 2005, Jones finally got a long-term deal when he signed a four-year, $16 million contract with the Cavaliers, coming off a season with the Miami Heat in 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 same role alongside James.
At his introductory news conference, Jones bragged: «Not to be arrogant at all, I think I’m one of the top-five shooters in the world. [The top 5] are me as a rookie. Me in Years 2-4. Me in Year 5. Me in Year 7.»
He was also a gambler.
Jones was a regular in card games after practices, on team flights and around tables in hotel suites on road trips.
«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.»
Perhaps not anymore.
LAST MONTH, JONES was indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors allege he leaked non-public information to sports bettors when he was a voluntary member of the Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff in 2023 and, in a separate but related case, with participating in a Mafia-tied scheme to run rigged poker games.
He pleaded not guilty to both counts on Nov. 8.
«There are probably some people out there pretty worried about Damon right now,» one longtime league executive who used to have Jones on his roster said. «He has nothing to lose and nothing to bargain with — other than rolling over on other people.»
The two federal cases indicted 34 people and prosecutors said their investigations would continue and possibility expand. There are still two unnamed conspirators in the cases that are described as former NBA players.
The cases grew, in part, due to the cooperation of those indicted in a separate gambling-related case involving former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter.
Jones made more than $21 million in his NBA career, but people around him suspect he spent it nearly as quickly as he made it.
Even by NBA standards Jones seemed to teammates to spend above his station. After playing in 373 games over a five-year span from 2003-08, his career tailed off suddenly as he played just 18 games in the 2008-09 season and then was out of the league at age 32.
In retirement, Jones’ shooting exploits and personality got him coaching and media opportunities. He worked as a shooting consultant and then an assistant coach with the Cavs and their G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, from 2014-18, including their 2016 championship team. He appeared on television as well, including on ESPN.
His personality and penchant for trash-talking never dimmed. In a classic example, in 2018 Cavs guard J.R. Smith was suspended for a game by the Cavaliers after throwing a bowl of chicken tortilla soup at Jones in the cafeteria at the team’s practice facility.
Smith later said he’d done so to teach Jones a lesson about running his mouth. «I thought about it. It wasn’t a rageful throw,» Smith said 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 never dimmed, either, despite no longer earning an NBA salary. Multiple friends and former co-workers say Jones routinely asked them for loans after his playing career ended.
During his time as a coach in Cleveland, Jones often stayed in the guest room of another of the team’s coaches, sources said.
«Honestly, I started to try to avoid him,» one former NBA player said. «Because I didn’t want to have money conversations.»
Said another longtime friend, «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.»
Between 2013 and 2024 Jones declared bankruptcy twice, was sued at least four times for unpaid personal loans, and twice had a management company in Houston file eviction notices against him, according to NBC News.
Jones and his wife first filed for bankruptcy in 2013. In court filings, he listed 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 roughly $2,400 in an IRA. That case was dismissed.
Two years later, when Jones and his wife filed for bankruptcy again, they reported in a court filing that they had $50 in cash and less than $50 in the bank. That case, too, was dismissed.
Jones was then employed as a shooting consultant by the Cavs, where he made about $4,000 a month. Jones and his wife, according to records, owed creditors $644,109. Some of Jones’ biggest debts, according to records, were an $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 NBA offseasons.
In one of the personal loan cases, Jones reportedly used his Cavs 2016 championship ring as collateral.
Earlier this month, Jones’ mother and stepfather pledged their Houston home to secure his $200,000 bond.
JONES DID MAINTAIN an off-and-on friendship with James for years after they were teammates in Cleveland.
Known for having a tight circle, James typically is very selective about whom he lets in. Jones was on the Cavs from 2005-08, and, unofficially, a part of the Lakers’ staff in the 2022-23 season, ostensibly because of James’ comfort level with him.
«LeBron is very into routines,» one former Lakers staffer said. «For a while, shooting with D-Jones was part of his routine.»
Jones routinely traveled with the Lakers, attended practices and had access to the locker and training rooms, sources told ESPN. And, as was his custom, he apparently gambled with them as well.
One of the traits of the Lakers’ team the year Jones was on staff, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2023, was their «freeze» gesture made after hitting big 3-pointers, which stemmed from an inside joke involving Jones’ antics when he won a big hand playing cards.
The indictments said the FBI found evidence that Jones sold information about Laker player availability to gamblers in both 2023 and 2024.
The indictment doesn’t reveal which players were involved, but the details suggest it involved James one time and then-star Laker teammate Anthony Davis the other.
In the court documents, the prosecutors say the FBI uncovered a text message from Jones to one of the gamblers in which he encouraged a big bet on the Milwaukee Bucks in a game in which James was not expected 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 did not know Jones was leaking information about his status, according to multiple sources close to the player.
At the time of the indictments, James and Jones had not been on speaking terms for an extended period, sources said. The falling out with James was hard on Jones, both personally and for his job prospects, he told several people over the past few years.
Jones and his attorney have declined all interview requests since his arrest, and they did not respond to questions entering or leaving the courthouse in Brooklyn earlier this month.
For someone who sought the spotlight and worked to profit off of it, it is a drastic change to how he’d lived his life.
«My confidence is never gone, never in my life,» Jones said in 2008. «I usually come out on the other side smelling like roses.»
