Blakeney goes from an NBA player to alleged game fixer

Antonio Blakeney took the court in Israel on Sunday and had one of his best games this season, scoring 27 points for the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team he has played for since 2024. Back in the United States, Blakeney was attracting news coverage for a vastly different reason.

Earlier this month, federal law enforcement unsealed criminal charges alleging Blakeney was one of the ringleaders in a U.S. college basketball gambling and game-fixing scandal in China involving 26 defendants.

The indictment alleges Blakeney convinced NCAA players that his other co-conspirators would pay $10,000 to $32,000 in exchange for poor performances, sitting out of or removing themselves from games, and providing information about players’ health and game status. Blakeney stood to receive part of the winnings, the indictment alleges.

Blakeney, 29, is the only former NBA player among the defendants. He is charged separately from the other alleged conspirators, and it remains unclear whether he might have struck a deal as a cooperating witness. Either way, the charges mark a sharp turning point in the promising career of a former five-star recruit who played two seasons at LSU and parts of two seasons with the Chicago Bulls and their G League team before joining teams in China and Israel.

Blakeney’s attorneys declined comment to ESPN and said his family wouldn’t comment either. Messages left with dozens of his former teammates and coaches from high school through the pros went unreturned.

The Department of Justice statement on the indictment alleges that Marves Fairley, a codefendant in this case as well as in an October NBA gambling indictment, left nearly $200,000 in Blakeney’s storage unit in Florida as payments and proceeds following the 2022-23 season. That payment allegedly was for point-shaving and game-fixing in China. If convicted for crimes he is charged with related to wire fraud in the United States, Blakeney could face up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Blakeney grew up in Florida — first in the Sarasota area and then Orlando, where he starred at Oak Ridge High School. By Blakeney’s sophomore year, longtime trainer Iren Rainey told ESPN he saw professional potential — a consistent high scorer who could maneuver the ball confidently past opponents. Blakeney was so highly touted that he merited a multipart documentary featured on YouTube.

Blakeney told the «Euro Insiders» podcast last year that he started contemplating his NBA potential while still in high school, when he faced NBA players Austin Rivers and Courtney Lee during recreational play in an open gym.

«I did enough to make myself think, like, dang, I’m in the 11th grade and I’m playing against NBA guys and I can do something,» Blakeney said on «Euro Insiders.» «I know I can make it there one day if I keep working.»

The matchup was arranged by Rainey, who has trained numerous NBA and WNBA players and worked with Blakeney since high school.

«That’s when Antonio, psychologically, made the paradigm shift of knowing: I am an NBA guy,» Rainey said. «I can compete at this level.»

Blakeney won Florida’s Mr. Basketball award in 2015, beating out his AAU teammate and future NBA No. 1 pick Ben Simmons. They were both named McDonald’s All-Americans. For a year, Blakeney and Simmons played college basketball together at LSU. As a sophomore, Blakeney averaged 17.2 points a game and was named second-team All-SEC before declaring for the 2017 NBA draft.

He went undrafted. But that didn’t stop other unselected players from reaching the NBA, Blakeney recalled telling himself in the «Euro Insiders» interview, so why should it stop him? «All I knew was I’m going to be one of those guys,» Blakeney said. «That’s all I was thinking that night. Like, I’ll be one of the guys that went undrafted and make it.»

Blakeney was the Bulls’ leading scorer in the 2017 summer league. He signed a two-way contract, playing in 19 NBA games for the Bulls in 2017-18 and 57 games in 2018-19.

There were no standout NBA performances, but he thrived with the Windy City Bulls in the G League, averaging 32 points per game and earning Rookie of the Year honors in the 2017-18 season.

The Bulls tried to change him into a 3-point and defensive specialist, «but at the time, I was so young, [what] I didn’t really get to understand is that’s what gets you paid in the NBA, like being a role player,» Blakeney told «Euro Insiders.»

Had Blakeney been able to adapt sooner, Rainey said, he might still be in the NBA.

The Bulls waived Blakeney on Sept. 9, 2019. International opportunities began arriving, including an offer to play in China.

«If it were up to me, I probably would have told him not to make that decision,» Rainey said, explaining that players go to China at the end of their careers — not the beginning. But Rainey wasn’t advising Blakeney at the time.

In 2019-20, Blakeney averaged 34.8 points while playing 16 games for the Jiangsu Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

«He liked the freedom to be able to play his game. … So I think his confidence was super high when he came back,» Rainey said.

Then, the pandemic struck. Blakeney stayed in the United States in 2021, playing with the G League’s Canton (now Cleveland) Charge in the bubble at Walt Disney World near his Orlando-area home.

«He was coachable,» said Tyler Neal, one of the Charge assistants that season. «Never gave anybody any issues. Never really was a problem at all.»

Neal told ESPN that Blakeney gave advice to younger players. The bubble’s limited contact kept Neal from getting to know Blakeney well, but he said it was «shocking» and «disappointing» to see Blakeney’s name connected to the scandal.

IN MAY 2021, according to court records, police interrogated Blakeney following an alleged robbery at his residence in Osceola County, Florida. What his role was — and whether he was a victim or perpetrator — was unclear. Court records indicate he knew all the parties involved. No records of charges against him exist in Osceola County courts.

A warrant asked for three men, but not Blakeney, to be arrested following an investigation. The men were charged with home-invasion robbery with a firearm, aggravated assault and grand theft stemming from an alleged robbery during a card game at Blakeney’s home. Details in the police report provided confusing and contradictory details of what happened. One of the victims in the case told police he and Blakeney «often gamble large amounts of money» and that Blakeney owed him nearly $23,000.

In the court files of another defendant, one of the alleged victims in the case signed an affidavit declining to pursue Blakeney’s prosecution, claiming that «Antonio Blakeney is a victim in this case» and that the victim was not «afraid or in fear» of Blakeney, who was listed as a defendant. A second alleged victim also declined to prosecute Blakeney — or any of the defendants — and described the entire ordeal as a «misunderstanding.»

The case was closed, and no prosecutions occurred.

Blakeney returned to China in 2022-23 to play for Jiangsu, averaging 32.7 points per game.

It was during that season, federal authorities allege, that Blakeney conspired with two others to «affect the outcomes of CBA games.» The indictment, filed under seal in 2024 but unsealed this month, says Blakeney received bribes in exchange for Blakeney staging «intentionally poor performances, sitting out of games or removing himself from games.» Blakeney recruited other American players in China to do the same, the indictment alleges.

Blakeney continued playing in China the next season, averaging 30.5 points for Nanjing. During that season, federal authorities allege, he received bribes for games in China and recruited college basketball players in the United States to alter the outcome of their games. They also allege that he recruited other American players in the Chinese league to alter their performances.

Four days after the sealed indictment was filed, Blakeney signed a contract with Hapoel Tel Aviv. Blakeney’s team won the EuroCup, which led to Tel Aviv being promoted to the prestigious EuroLeague this season.

Rainey said Blakeney vacillated between pushing for another NBA shot and becoming comfortable with being a high-level European player.

«Once he proved to himself and proved to other people that he belonged at that level, he embraced it a lot more,» Rainey said.

Still unexplained is how Blakeney might have veered from a rewarding career to what federal authorities allege was participation in a game-fixing conspiracy. Rainey said it doesn’t fit with what he knows about Blakeney, and he doesn’t believe the allegations are true.

Last April, with the indictment still under seal, Blakeney signed an extension with Tel Aviv through the 2026-27 season. He remains overseas, holding a key role on a team tied for first place in both the EuroLeague and the Israeli league.

His coach, Dimitris Itoudis, said the club trusts Blakeney.

«That’s old stories, and whatever I say now might be used or not used, so better not to say …» Itoudis said, according to Sports Rabbi, an Israeli sports website. «We have no concerns in regards of the integrity, commitment and the sport ethic that AB [Blakeney] has.»

Rainey said he spoke to Blakeney before the indictment became public and had no idea his longtime pupil was even under investigation. He said Blakeney was excited about the season. He said he never saw any inkling Blakeney might be involved in the alleged activity.

«He was in a place in his life where he was growing, where he was elevating and where he was really evolving and maturing as a professional,» Rainey said. «And I was commending him on that. So for me, this is definitely a huge shock, for sure.»