Yang Yi: How much does a player earn when he is involved in gambling? He lost his 42 million contract

28-year-old Malik Beasley didn't expect that he would become the hottest free agent this early autumn. It is actually not important whether it is hot or not. What is important is another connotation of the identity of "free agent": a contract has not been signed yet. The opening day of the NBA free agent market is July 7, and no contract has been signed by the end of August, which basically means that you are the ones you are being picked and can only wait for some special opportunities. Strictly speaking, Beasley is not actually a person who is being picked up, and he shouldn't have waited until now.

去年他加盟活塞，打满82场，大部分场次是替补，场均还是能砍下16.3分，帮助活塞时隔5年再次闯入季后赛，自己也在最佳第六人票选中位列第2。 What is important may not be these cold data, but because Beasley has been in the league for 9 years and now has a positive label that can make a living. Last year, he scored the second most 319 three-pointers with a shooting percentage of 41.6%, and averaged 3.9 third in the league.

In the season finale day game, Beasley made a substitute for 18 minutes, making 7 of 11 from outside the three-point line, leading Edwards, who ranked second at the time. Beasley was excited after the game and posted on social media, saying, "The first three-pointer in history to be a substitute!" Two hours later, Huazi also finished his last regular season game, and his opponent was the Jazz at the bottom of the West. Huazi played for 40 minutes, made 18 shots outside the three-point line, and scored 7. Although the ending is a bit awkward, Beasley can now be regarded as a reliable shooter or a space point in the tactical sense, or a bench that does not need to take up too much ball rights and time to break up. Typical Louis Williams and Jamal Crawford-style players are pretty useful, and if it is not expensive, it is the type that every team will want.

Obviously, the rising Pistons also need Beasley to continue to sit on his bench, so they prepared a three-year, $42 million contract extension for him in June this year, preparing to officially sign the free agent market as soon as it opens in July. 42 million in 3 years, with an average annual average of only 14 million. For a 28-year-old player at the best sixth man level, it can be said that it is good and cheap. For Beasley himself, he has no defense, his control level is average, and he cannot play point guard. His height of 1.93 meters and his average physical fitness are not allowed to keep him in the No. 2 position for a long time. Beasley once had a super dream. After being selected by the Nuggets with the 16th pick in the first round, he was signed by the AJ brand. After leaving the ignorant Nuggets to go to the Timberwolves, he also had a highlight moment of 20 points per game. He signed with the Timberwolves for 4 years and 60 million yuan in his second contract. That was five years ago, and the epidemic had just begun.

5 years ago, Beasley was only 23 years old and had lofty ambitions. When he was in the Timberwolves, he broke the Wolves' three-point record until Ji Huazi broke his again last time. Beasley probably didn't expect to wait until five years to get another big contract of tens of millions, not to mention that the 14 million today is very different from the 15 million five years ago. Of course, the average career length of an NBA player does not exceed 5 years, and he can enter the scope of veteran terms in 8 years. It is actually not easy for Beasley to stick to the peak of his life and income now, and it is difficult for him to say what he can be dissatisfied with.

However, the teasing of fate is always so elusive that just eight days before the day of signing is allowed, Beasley was investigated for suspected betting on football, and the signing negotiations with the Pistons were put on hold. The Pistons turned to sign Carlis LeVer, traded back to Duncan Robinson from Miami, and gave Javent Green a one-year contract. Basically, they all got together from the sixth person to the space hand to the veteran's second position, and the three achieved full coverage of Beasley in terms of strength to function. But it is hard to say that the Pistons will always give up. Who is willing to give a contract for someone who may go to jail or be banned for life? Although similar contracts have crime termination clauses or related insurance, it is difficult for the team to suffer substantial losses, the team could have used the money to sign some people who can play.

Beasley's investigation of the misconduct mainly occurred during his time for the Bucks in the 2023-24 season. The most typical suspected case occurred in the Bucks against the Trail Blazers on January 31, 2024. Before the game, the bookmaker found that a large amount of funds were abnormally poured into betting Beasley with less than 2.5 rebounds. In the end, Beasley grabbed 6 rebounds, and all the funds flowing into the lower set belonged to the bookmaker.

Before Beasley, Rocher was also under league investigation at the beginning of the year, mainly to see if he had abnormal betting behavior in a game when he played for the Hornets two years ago. In the end, the league confirmed that Rochil did not violate the league rules: in a certain game, a Rochil-related event was placed in 46 minutes, with a total of 30 orders, a total of 13,759 US dollars, and all 30 orders were bought. That is, it was bet that Rochil could not complete a certain number of data, and finally won all 30 orders, with a total pure prize of 13,017.70 US dollars. In that game, Rochil only played 10 minutes before leaving the game due to injury.

And in the same batch of investigations, another NBA player was not so lucky: 2024 Toronto Raptors forward Jontai Porter was suspended for life by the NBA on the grounds that he "violated league regulations, disclosed confidential information to sports betting participants, and restricted himself from participating in one or more games for gambling purposes, and betting on NBA games."

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Profession and Amateur Sports Protection Act with a 6-3 vote, allowing states to decide whether sports betting is legal. In the past 25 years, only Nevada, Oregon, Delaware and Montana were legal in sports betting, and only Nevada allowed betting on all sports events.

Before the NBA officially launched cooperation with the gambling industry, more than 30 states in the United States could legally bet on sports events.. There was a news that could be used as a reference. In early August, Beasley was kicked out of his home in Detroit due to arrears of $21,500 in rent. Then he posted on social media and said:

"Wait for me to tell my story." What story will Beasley tell?

The story of him cheating on Pippen's ex-wife during marriage at the age of 23? Or is it the story of him rushing towards a passerby with an assault rifle at the age of 24 and being sentenced to felony jail for 120 days?

Or is it a story that his wife filed a divorce application to the court again on March 5 this year, on the eve of the 5th anniversary of the marriage?

and the story of his relationship with a female game anchor 10 days later?

Or is it a story that he was sued by a loan company for 5.8 million yuan in debt three years ago?

and the story of him using his current and future NBA contract as collateral to borrow?

Or those smaller debts? I owe the barber 27,000 yuan, and 34,000 yuan to the dentist...

Maybe what he wants to tell is actually not his own story at all?

Perhaps it was precisely because of these untold stories that he had regained his legal status as a contract after posting that social media two weeks after he posted it. Beasley needs this identity. People around Beasley, big-tits game anchors, loan companies, barbers, dentists, landlords, Xiao Hua... all need this identity.

No wonder Beasley will post social media again after temporarily getting rid of suspicion:

"They are back to me and support me."