“Every time they said something f—- up about me, I was in the f—- gym playing basketball,” Michael Beasley said. “Every time they said I got pulled over with a bag of f— w—, every time somebody f—- lied on me about something.” That’s the raw truth from a guy who came into the NBA in 2008 as the No. 2 pick, a walking bucket with the numbers to prove it. But somewhere along the way, the headlines started talking louder than his game. Personal struggles and off-court chatter slowly pushed Michael Beasley’s talent into the shadows. And Beasley? He carried the weight of trying to fix a public image that never really felt like his.
Michael Beasley didn’t hold back when he opened up on the Ball is Life podcast; you could feel the frustration in his words. “When I found out my family was stealing from me, and they weren’t stealing from me like, intentionally stealing from me, they were just spending more money. And my CPA stole all my money, like all of my money,” Beasley said. He recounted the agonizing discovery that “everybody was stealing from me, down everybody for my financial advisor, for my mom, to everybody in my family,” during his appearance in The Pivot podcast. This left him at a heartbreaking crossroads, facing “two evils”: either letting the exploitation continue for the sake of family ties or cutting them off entirely.
The pain of this betrayal was so much that along with it came a sense of isolation and a struggle wherein Michael just couldn’t communicate his plight. In fact, Beasley remembered the futility of trying to explain million dollar problems “to somebody ain’t never seen $10 before.” His voice heavy with emotion, he shared, “I’ve been trying to find good people for so long.” He even recalled blocking Kobe Bryant’s shot in a game while being completely broke. “I remember that s—. That’s why I say I went from crying for help to trying myself,” he shared.
After averaging a crazy 26.2 points and 12.4 rebounds in his one year at Kansas State, he barely got a real shot to grow in the NBA. A rehab stint in 2009 and a $50K fine for m——- only added fuel to a narrative that stuck with him. Even after solid runs, like with the Knicks and Rockets, it was always short deals and starting over. He came back with the Bucks in 2016, later the Lakers, showing flashes of that smooth game, but by then, the league seemed done waiting. And Beasley, too.
He spoke straight from the heart about being left to fight his battles alone. “My stomach was growling, and tomorrow came, I was hungry by myself, and tomorrow came. I don’t like you, I don’t have to like you. I like me that much, because I was there for me. Every f—- day, every f—- dribble, every time, every DM,” Beasley said. That’s what stings the most for him, people thinking he’s lazy or doesn’t care. “That’s the part of the narrative I hate. People don’t think I work, people just think I am so cool.”
And then came the rawest part, when he talked about warning kids not to follow his path. “I tell these kids in my gym, ‘Yo, you want to be Michael Beasley or Kevin Durant?’ You understand, and they get that,” he said. He knows how the world sees him. “I’m known as one of the best basketball players ever. Do you want to be that? Without a job? Would you want to be kicking n—- in the balls? Making $40 million a year, says Draymond.” But he made it clear he’s not looking for clout. “I love n—-, you understand, because I don’t want no clout for none of that… God know, the right answer.”
Or Rich Paul does.
Rich Paul breaks down why Beasley isn’t in the NBA
There’s no denying Michael Beasley’s talent—even NBA super-agent Rich Paul, who reps some of the biggest names in the game, said it straight up. “There are very few guys to ever touch a basketball more talented than Michael Beasley,” Paul said. But Rich didn’t sugarcoat the real reason Beasley never stuck in the league: professionalism. “The professionalism aspect of this whole thing is so important, man,” Paul explained. “You sit back and ask, ‘Why ain’t he in the league?’ It’s because while they were there, and the talent was up here, they disregarded the professionalism.”
Paul added that a lot of the people Beasley crossed paths with—maybe shrugged off—are now decision-makers. “They don’t wanna deal with that,” he said. According to Paul, if Beasley had the chance to do it all over again, “he would take a different approach.” And honestly, Beasley himself doesn’t shy away from saying he feels left out, and not because of a lack of skill.
“If you look at my numbers, if you look at how I played the game, there’s no reason in hell I should not be playing basketball,” Beasley said. The man has a point. As a rookie, he averaged 13.9 points and 5.4 rebounds in under 25 minutes per game. “Jayson Tatum averaged 13 and six in 36 minutes and they gave him a chance to play basketball,” Beasley said, and yeah, the numbers check out. The frustration? It’s real. Everywhere he went, Beasley says, he showed he belonged—but somehow, the narrative always found a way to write him off.
It’s been a cycle that feels all too familiar in the league—talent that never gets a fair shake once off-court perceptions start clouding the picture. Beasley’s story echoes names like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Stephon Marbury, players whose careers were shaped as much by narratives as by their game. It’s not like Beasley vanished; it’s more like the NBA quietly moved on. “I’ve never gotten a chance to play basketball,” Beasley said.
His words hit differently when you realize the guy last suited up in the NBA alongside LeBron James, shot nearly 50% from the field, and still got pushed out.
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