Malik Beasley owed $8M to debtors, had wages garnished by dentist prior to gambling investigation

Malik Beasley seems destined to be the ultimate cautionary tale in the NBA. A player with $60M in career earnings, with a massive contract on the table, managed to find himself so far in debt that his dentist was garnishing his wages, which may have contributed to Beasley becoming embroiled in an alleged point shaving scandal.

If this sounds like something so convoluted it’s out of a movie, you wouldn’t be wrong. So let’s break down what exactly happened with Malik Beasley, from a $40M free agent offer, to now potentially being out of the NBA.

A pattern of financial mismanagement began with a loan

A report from The Detroit News detailed how Beasley’s financial problems appeared to begin when he was playing for the Timberwolves on a four-year, $60M contract. South River Capital, a private company specializing in lending money to professional athletes, extended an undisclosed line of credit to Beasley based off his future earnings.

While the amount of that loan isn’t clear, we do know that in 2022 South River Capital was awarded a $5.8M judgement order Beasley to pay back the loan, and this came after he made a payment of $1.13M. It’s not uncommon for professional athletes to take out loans based on future unrealized contracts, but this started a pattern of financial issues for Beasley, who seemingly had his financial problems snowball from here.

More lawsuits mount

While the South River Capital lawsuit was the largest, Beasley was routinely taken to court over smaller defaulted loans, and unpaid bills.

• $650K to Hazan Sports Management for failure to repay a loan against future marketing revenue
• $26,827 to Cairo Cuts, a celebrity barbershop in Milwaukee
• $21,505 to The Stott, a historic apartment building in Detroit for failure to pay rent
• $34,390 to Dr. Hassan Alshehabi, a dentist in Minnesota

That last debt, to Dr. Alshehabi led to a court judgement to garnish Beasley’s wages to satify the debt, indicating he perhaps didn’t have the $35,000 on hand to pay off the bill — despite earning $6M this season with the Pistons.

In addition to these lawsuits there’s also an outstanding bridge loan from a firm in Florida which the athlete signed. In total Beasley had over $8M in outstanding loans and unpaid bills.

The betting scandal

On June 30 news broke that Beasley was under investigation by the FBI as part of a wire fraud investigation involving gambling and prop bets. While he was not charged criminally, as part of the probe it was revealed that betting interest in Beasley’s points began to explode in January of 2024, when Beasley was with the Timberwolves.

Possible involvement of Beasley’s role is still being investigated, though there is a curious drop in production the player saw from December of 2023, to January of 2024.

• December 2023: 12.1 ppg, 50.5% FG, 51.5% 3P, +12.5
• January 2024: 9.9 ppg, 40.5% FG, 40.7% 3P, +5.6

Both Beasley and the Wolves had a significant drop in production when he was on the floor in January, when alleged interest in Beasley’s numbers among sports betting boomed. In addition he had 13 turnovers in January, which matched his combined total in November and December of the previous year.

Fallout

Beasley was set to make big money in free agency after finishing 2nd in Sixth Man of the Year voting, after a season in Detroit which saw him average 16.3 points per game.

The Detroit News reported that the Pistons were prepared to offer him a three-year, $42M contract. However, the Pistons rescinded their offer when news of the gambling probe emerged. As of this time nobody has made a contract offer to Malik Beasley, likely pending the investigation by the FBI.

Steve Haney, Beasley’s lawyer, was quick to point out that there are no charges against his client.

“It’s a gambling investigation involving Malik. No criminal charges have been issued. It’s nothing but an investigation, and Malik is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” Haney said.

While Beasley is certainly entitled to a presumption of innocence in a court of law, that doesn’t mean teams will line up for his services. The gambling investigation comes just over a year since Jontay Porter of the Raptors was banned for life from the NBA for placing parlay bets on his own team’s “under,” which he participated in.

At this point it could take a long time to iron out what Beasley knew about the irregular betting on him, or whether the NBA will take action against him.