Malik Beasley has been indicted by federal prosecutors in New York on sports gambling charges, with former NBA center Ed Davis also named in the case, according to reporting from The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov.
Beasley’s attorney, Steve Haney, said his client is facing sports betting, money laundering and wire fraud charges and that they “look forward to defending all charges.”
The indictment comes out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, which alleges Beasley and Davis grew close when they were teammates on the 2020/21 Timberwolves and later worked together to manipulate Beasley’s play in four NBA games for betting purposes while Beasley was with the Bucks during the 2023/24 season.
Prosecutors say Beasley had millions in gambling losses and joined the scheme with Davis and three other people, including former NBA agent Paolo Zamorano, in an effort to cover that debt.
One alleged text message from Davis to Beasley, sent about a month before the first targeted game, read: “Only way you can beat Vegas is sports betting,” Davis allegedly told Beasley in a text message about a month before the first game in question, a Bucks/Cavaliers matchup on January 26, 2024. “Everything else they got the edge.”
The games identified by prosecutors were January 26 against the Cavaliers, February 27 against the Hornets, March 10 against the Clippers and March 21 against the Nets. In the Jan. 26 game, Beasley took just two shots and scored three points, and investigators say the group wagered thousands of dollars tied to that outing.
According to Vorkunov’s reporting, the group bet the “over” on Beasley’s rebounds at 3.5 for the Clippers game and celebrated when he got his fourth rebound in the final seconds. The plan allegedly backfired in the Nets game, when they bet the “under” on his rebounds and Beasley finished with six.
Beasley, a high-volume three-point threat, finished second in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2024/25 and had been in line for a major multiyear deal with the Pistons before contract talks stopped once federal investigators and the NBA began looking into a possible link to illegal betting activity. He later signed with Cangrejeros de Santurce, the Puerto Rican team owned by Bad Bunny, while his NBA future remains unresolved.
The case adds Beasley and Davis to a list of former NBA players already indicted in the broader federal gambling probe, alongside Terry Rozier, Jontay Porter and Damon Jones. Porter was permanently banned from the NBA after a league investigation found he had shared confidential information with bettors. The other cases are still active.
NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said the league is reviewing the indictment and will continue to cooperate with authorities.
“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictment unsealed today involving Malik Beasley and Ed Davis. Beasley last played in the NBA during the 2024/25 season and Davis last played in the league during the 2021/22 season.
We will continue to investigate this matter and cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
In Other News...
Two Alabama Legends Just Weighed In On Kalen DeBoers Plan
On a podcast, two familiar Alabama voices came to the defense of Kalen DeBoer and Courtney Morgans approach to building the roster, backing a strategy that leans as much on keeping people in place as it does on adding new talent. Former Tide standouts AJ McCarron and Trent Richardson framed the conversation around the realities of the modern sport, where NIL and the Transfer Portal can turn roster management into a year-round test of patience and priority.
For Alabama, the larger question is not whether it can still attract elite recruits, because it already has landed some highly regarded names. It is whether the Tide can pair those additions with a locker room that develops together and stays intact long enough for DeBoers plan to take hold, which is exactly the balance McCarron and Richardson were pointing toward as they talked through the coachs vision. [Read more 🡒]
Nick Saban Just Took An Unusual Step For Terrion Arnold
Nick Saban took a rare and notable step this week by sending a character reference letter on Terrion Arnolds behalf during the former Alabama standouts bond hearing in Florida. The letter came as Arnold worked through a legal process tied to an incident earlier this year in Tampa, a development that immediately put his situation in a different light than the football questions that usually follow a player of his profile.
Arnold was granted $1 million bail after the hearing, but his legal situation is still far from settled. What happens next will matter well beyond one courtroom, especially for an Alabama program that watched Arnold rise under Saban and now sees one of its former players facing a deeply uncertain road. [Read more 🡒]
Another Kalen DeBoer Ranking Just Gave Alabama Fans A Reason To Stew
A fresh round of college football debate has Alabama fans looking at Kalen DeBoer through the lens of yet another ranking exercise, this time from On3 analysts Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman. Their speculative draft of the top 20 head coaches was built as opinion and analysis, but it still put DeBoer in a spot that will catch the eye in Tuscaloosa, especially given how quickly he has become part of the conversation around the sports elite sideline minds.
DeBoer came off the board at No. 11, behind Mike Elko, Kyle Whittingham and Lane Kiffin, which is exactly the kind of order that can stir up a fan base already inclined to defend its coach. The argument attached to the placement is pretty simple: Alabama supporters have a case to be irritated, because the ranking suggests DeBoer has already done more than some of the names selected ahead of him. [Read more 🡒]