Tony Allen Arrested On Drug Charges In Arkansas

Source: Wesley Hitt / Getty

Tony Allen’s back in the spotlight for his legal troubles.

The former NBA player was arrested on one felony and one misdemeanor drug charge stemming from an incident in Arkansas.

According to TMZ, he was sitting in the passenger seat when the driver of the vehicle, William Hatton, illegally changed lanes on Interstate 555. 

Authorities from the Poinsett County Sheriff’s Department pulled over the car about 50 miles outside of Memphis. Upon searching Allen, they found a bag of marijuana on him. In the car, they discovered a white powdery substance hidden in a cigarette box, which was later identified as cocaine. 

Allen is currently in the Poinsett County Detention Center in Harrisburg, Arkansas, and is being held without bond.

Allen’s most recent run-in with the law came in 2021, when, along with 18 other former NBA players, he was charged with allegedly defrauding the league’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan, totaling $4 million. Allen alone was accused of submitting more than $400,000 in invoices for dental work and chiropractor sessions that never happened, hoping to get reimbursed.

In a 2023 ruling, he avoided prison time, receiving only three years of supervised release, and paid back most of the money before the trial, where he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud. So this drug arrest could have some repercussions for his supervised release status, which hasn’t expired yet. 

Allen’s basketball story heats up in college as a member of the Oklahoma State University Cowboys, leading the team to the Final Four in his senior year, and he was named Big 12 Player of the Year before declaring for the 2004 NBA draft.

He went off the board 25th in the first round to the Boston Celtics, with whom he won a championship in 2008 alongside the Big Three: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. After feeling “overshadowed” for two more years, he signed a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, where he stayed until 2017.

He was named to the NBA’s all-defensive team six times, so he was known for his lockdown defense before ultimately retiring in 2020 when the Grizzlies lifted his jersey into the rafters.

See social media’s reaction to his arrest below.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.