BROOKLYN -- Portland Trail Blazers head coach and National Basketball Association hall of famer Chauncey Billups is expected to plead not guilty to federal charges that he helped lure unsuspecting players to rigged poker games when he appears in Brooklyn federal court Monday.

Prosecutors said Billups was one of the alleged scheme's a "face cards" who used his celebrity to attract high-rollers to poker tables that were equipped with x-ray technology and altered shuffling machines. The poker games were backed by organized crime families, according to the indictment , which was revealed Oct. 23.

Billups, who spent 17 seasons in the NBA and was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP, is one of 31 defendants charged in the scheme, all of whom are due in court Monday. They're facing various charge

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