A day after Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups — a Basketball Hall of Famer — and Heat guard Terry Rozier were implicated in a federal sports betting and gambling probe, the NBA world is still grappling with the news.

Celtics guard Anfernee Simons, who was traded to Boston from Portland this past offseason, said Friday he was “in shock” when he learned that his former coach, Billups, had been arrested by the FBI in connection with an underground Mafia-backed poker scheme.

“It hit me pretty tough for sure,” Simons said before Friday’s game against the Knicks. “Obviously [I’ve got] a great relationship with Chauncey like you know speaking even after the trade, he’s checking in on me, I’m checking in on him and so we had a great relationship. And I think like I said before it’s an unfortunate situation for him to be in, especially him and his family, all the media attention that’s coming in — the scrutiny — and it’s just an unfortunate situation.”

Nets guard Terance Mann echoed Simons’ sentiment, saying he and Billups remained close even after Mann left Portland.

“Definitely shocked,” Mann said. “I had no idea. Definitely a shocking situation. So, you know, good luck to him on what he has going on.”

Follow The Post’s live updates on the bombshell NBA, Mafia gambling scandal

Knicks guard Josh Hart declined to talk about the specific situation but he vouched for Billups, who he played under for a year in Portland. 

“Chauncey was great to me, one of my favorite people in general. He was a genuine person,” Hart said. “So I don’t know the facts and all that, but Chauncey is a great dude and I’ll talk about it later when all the facts come out.”

Celtics star Jaylen Brown said it’s hard to decipher between fact and fiction with the accusations that have been floating around. But Brown believes the accusations against Rozier, who was in Boston for the first three years of Brown’s career, are “not conducive to his character.”

View this document on Scribd

View this document on Scribd

“We’ll get to the bottom of it as a union and figure out what the next step forward is,” said Brown, the vice president of the NBA players association.

Billups is facing wire fraud and money laundering charges after he allegedly participated in an illegal poker operation where he and other defendants used high-tech technology to cheat and steal millions of dollars from victims.

Meanwhile, Rozier is charged in connection with an alleged insider sports-betting conspiracy where he’s accused of sharing nonpublic information to bettors.

The NBA announced Thursday afternoon that Billups and Rozier were put on “immediate leave” as the league continues to review the bombshell indictments unsealed Thursday.

The FBI has arrested 31 people involved in a rigged poker game ring backed by the New York City organized crime families.

Billups and Rozier have both denied the allegations.

Billups is also believed to be an unnamed defendant in the sports-gambling indictment, who allegedly told a bettor the Trail Blazers would be tanking and sitting several of their best players in a March 24, 2023 game against the Bulls. Four regular Portland starters, including Simons, didn’t play in that game, which the Trail Blazers lost by 28.

Simons said he was unaware Portland was tanking.

“We get told to play, not in charge of the minutes, you know what I mean,” Simons said. “So you just play until you come out of the game or don’t play. So it was really that simple. I don’t think I was told anything.”

The indictments, though, put a spotlight on the Pandora’s box that opened with the legalization of sports betting. Players, teams and leagues face an onslaught of issues, including player harassment and questions regarding the integrity of the game.

“That whole [betting] world was introduced a couple years ago, and I don’t think [the league] took players into consideration especially with the energy and behavior that goes around you know gambling and how that directly correlates with the players,” Brown said. “We don’t benefit from any of the profits and anything like that but we got to deal with a lot of the extra negativity and scrutiny behind all the gambling stuff and then on top of that it creates more integrity issues.”

Simons said sports betting has “always been a topic” among players, team administrators and the league. He also said players are frequently reminded not to share information with anyone until it’s public.

“Obviously gambling in the sports world is becoming a bigger thing and we just got to make sure the players are aware of all the risks of simple conversations with, you know, different people have about the game or confidential information and so you just got to be careful in those conversations,” Simons said. “It’s a hard situation to be in, you just got to be smart in that situation and know if it’s not public, don’t say it.”

— Brian Lewis and Zach Braziller contributed to this report