Players placing bets on games is taboo. Innumerable sports fans were educated on this point in 1989 when hits king Pete Rose received a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball for betting on games while he was a manager.
Or upon watching “Eight Men Out,” the 1988 film about MLB’s Black Sox Scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series.
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Or from recent incidents, including Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley’s suspension in 2022 for a year for betting on NFL games and Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter’s lifetime ban in 2024 for betting on NBA games, giving gamblers confidential information and taking himself out of a game to affect bets.
Rose’s ban was rescinded this year, but not until after he died, with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred reasoning that the lifetime part of the ban was no longer applicable.
Former Lakers guard Malik Beasley presumably can take solace in being alive Friday when he learned that he is no longer a target of the federal gambling investigation that his attorneys said harmed his reputation and cost him millions in potential earnings.
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Attorneys Steve Haney and Mike Schachter told ESPN that they were informed by the court conducting the investigation that Beasley is not suspected of gambling on NBA games during the 2023-24 season.
“Months after this investigation commenced, Malik remains uncharged and is not the target of this investigation,” Haney told ESPN. “An allegation with no charge, indictment or conviction should never have the catastrophic consequence this has caused Malik. This has literally been the opposite of the presumption of innocence.”
It was reported one day before the official start of free agency in June that Beasley was under investigation by the Eastern District of New York. And, yes, Beasley was a free agent after averaging 16.3 points a game with the Detroit Pistons and setting a franchise record with 319 three-pointers.
Result? The three-year, $42-million contract the Pistons had on the table to bring back the 28-year-old nine-year veteran was rescinded. Other suitors turned their backs as well.
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Two months later, most teams have spent the money for free agents. The maximum Beasley can re-sign with the Pistons for is one year and $7.2 million. Several other teams can offer a similar or slightly more lucrative deal, but Beasley likely will sign a one-year deal.
Read more: Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr.’s 3 brothers’ troubles: NBA ban, prison sentence, DWI arrest
Beasley posted a SnapChat story Aug. 6 before he had been exonerated, and he couldn’t help but sound bitter.
“People are judging me,” he said on the video. “Have I made some mistakes in my life? Yes. Am I proud of those mistakes? No. I’m human, but I know what I know… I just gotta stay positive, stay low key.
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“I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I’m ready to destroy anything in front of me to prove again that I belong in this league. For those who know me, I work too hard. I work every day. I put basketball before anything.”
Beasley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of threats of violence and was sentenced to 120 days in jail in 2020. The NBA suspended him for 12 games. The three-point-shooting expert played 24 games for the Lakers in the 2022-23 season, averaging 11.1 points a game.
Beasley drew the attention of the gambling investigation when a sportsbook detected heavy betting on his statistics beginning in January 2024, according to ESPN.
A Jan. 31 game involving the Milwaukee Bucks — the team Beasley played for at the time — raised suspicions, according to ESPN’s gambling industry source. The odds on Beasley recording fewer than 2.5 rebounds shortened significantly at sportsbooks leading up to the game. Beasley, however, finished with six rebounds, and those suspicious bets lost.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
