Damon Jones allegedly used his 2016 NBA Finals ring as a collateral for a personal loan after filing for bankruptcy and possible eviction.
Looks like Damon Jones would have to trade in his valuables because things are getting real out here. The former NBA player is reportedly broke and caught in a messy financial storm.
Word on the street is that Jones has allegedly used his NBA Finals ring as collateral for a loan amid rigged underground poker games scandal. And to make things worse, he’s now facing eviction in his fancy Houston apartment.
NBC News reviewed more than 150 pages of court documents from Jones, including financial forms, spanning more than a decade that show persistent financial problems for the ex-athlete. In addition to the eviction proceedings, Jones listed his 2016 NBA championship ring as collateral for a personal loan and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
When former NBA player Damon Jones… first filed for bankruptcy in 2013, he had to list his Yorkshire Terrier as an asset. The unnamed pooch was valued at just $1
“Operation Nothing But Bet” is one of two sprawling federal investigations into illegal gambling that were unveiled Oct. 23, the other being a probe of rigged high-stakes poker games allegedly backed by the Mafia called “Operation Royal Flush” which led to the arrests of several people, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. Prosecutors said the evidence in the latter case includes “financial records, telephone records, cellphone records and texts, cellphone extractions and location information, the contents of Apple iCloud accounts, witness testimony, and surveillance photographs.”
Jones in a big legal and financial mess and at this point, we got no idea what can save him.
Jones’ current address, according to available records, appears to be the Houston apartment that a property management company tried to evict him from in June 2023, claiming he owed around $5,600 in rent, records show.
The management company dismissed the case after Jones failed to appear in court. But in August 2023, the company filed another eviction notice against Jones, this time claiming he owed more than $11,000 in back rent.
Once again, Jones failed to appear in court and the judge issued a default judgment in favor of the company, granting it possession of the apartment and slapping Jones with a monetary judgment of $11,240, records show.
Apparently, this mess didn’t start in 2025, it goes back to 2013 when he filed for bankruptcy.
Jones’ financial woes go back at least to 2013, when his initial bankruptcy case was dismissed. Two years later, Jones filed for bankruptcy again and this time, according to court records, he reported $500,000 to $1 million in liabilities and claimed to have assets in the range of $100,001 to $500,000.
Jones, those records showed, owed around $640,000 to creditors and $47,000 to the Bellagio Hotels and Casino for “breach of contract/confession of judgement.”
That wasn’t all as Jones was also found in a hot financial mess in 2019 when a man popped up and accused him of owing him money.
Scott Kerr filed a civil complaint against Jones seeking monetary relief of $100,000 or less. According to the filing, Jones borrowed $10,000 from Kerr. That, plus a $4,000 fee, was supposed to be paid by Aug. 28, 2017.
Jones failed to pay back the loan and the collateral Jones put up to secure the loan from Kerr was his 2016 NBA championship ring, according to the filing, which added that he also failed to provide the collateral.
Meanwhile, his luxury apartment management in Houston isn’t laughing.
Hopefully, he can bounce back and get out of the financial and legal mess.
