Channing Frye: Malik Beasley’s gambling nightmare started due ‘side’ things and became ‘desperate’

Not long after guard Malik Beasley was one of the elite bench players in all of the NBA with the Detroit Pistons in the 2024-25 campaign, his future in the league seems to be up in the air. He is currently an unsigned free agent and under investigation in a federal gambling probe.

Not only that, but he got evicted from his high-rise apartment in the city of Detroit earlier this month.

Channing Frye, who played for six teams across his 13 seasons in the NBA, hypothesized about the genesis of Beasley’s gambling nightmare. Frye said that it all started because of “side” things, and Beasley eventually became “desperate” and had to bet on his games to pay his bills.

“Allie [Clifton], I think his situation’s different, though,” Frye said as to whether Beasley’s NBA career is over. “I think he probably was doing stuff on the side, got desperate, started betting on his games to start paying for bills. This is just what I assume — I don’t know if this is true — and then started betting on games so that he can make up the money. And things happen to players where you think you got 10 million, you really only got four and a half, but you’ve already promised all 10. So, how do you pay for bills?”

Reportedly, Beasley and the Pistons had talks about a three-year, $42 million contract extension before news of the FBI investigation came to light, and the Pistons paused discussions on the deal.

Beasley was one of three finalists for the Sixth Man of the Year award along with guards Ty Jerome and Payton Pritchard a season ago. He averaged a whopping 16.3 points per game on 41.6 percent shooting from 3-point range for a Pistons squad that shocked the basketball world and qualified for the 2025 NBA Playoffs after finishing the 2023-24 season with the league’s worst record.

While the Pistons would likely feel Beasley’s absence if he isn’t on the team in the coming season, the team at least acquired a player in a sign-and-trade deal who could be an ideal replacement. Forward Duncan Robinson is an elite 3-point shooter like Beasley, and he knocked down 39.3 percent of his 3s on 6.5 attempts per game with the Miami Heat last season.

If this is the end of the line for Beasley’s time in the NBA, he sure finished off his stint in the league with a bang, and it’s hard to believe that Detroit would have had such a single-season turnaround without his contributions on the offensive side of the ball.

Hopefully Beasley hasn’t already played his final game in the league, however, because he seemingly still has plenty of productive basketball left in the tank and could be a difference-maker on a lot of teams.