Just a year and a half ago, Malik Beasley, while playing for the Detroit Pistons, finished second in the Sixth Man of the Year race and was closing in on a $42 million contract. Now, he is headed to federal court to plead guilty.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Beasley has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges stemming from a Department of Justice investigation into illegal sports gambling, marking a major development in the former NBA guard’s legal case. According to The Athletic reporter Mike Vorkunov, who reported the latest development on X, Beasley’s attorney confirmed the agreement, with the nine-year NBA veteran scheduled to enter his plea on December 9 in Brooklyn.
He was indicted in June 2026 alongside five other defendants and initially pleaded not guilty to four counts: bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. It hasn’t been reported which of those counts the plea will cover.
The case centers on the 2023-24 season, when Beasley played for the Milwaukee Bucks. Prosecutors say he had piled up multimillion-dollar gambling losses, borrowed money from former NBA player Ed Davis, and then joined a scheme to pay it off. Davis, his teammate on the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020-21, is accused of running it.
According to the indictment, Beasley manipulated his statistics so bettors could win player-prop wagers, which are bets on individual numbers like points and rebounds. Prosecutors point to four games, against Cleveland on Jan. 26, 2024, Charlotte on Feb. 27, the Clippers on March 10, and Brooklyn on March 21. CBS Sports reports the scheme began to unravel in that last game, when Beasley went over his rebounding prop.
Beasley is the fourth of the six defendants to go for a guilty plea.
The legal case has also complicated Beasley’s basketball future. He last played in the NBA with the Detroit Pistons during the 2024–25 season, averaging 16.3 points, shooting 41.6% from the three-point range and making 319 threes, second-most in the NBA. He finished as the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up behind Boston’s Payton Pritchard.
Beasley was reportedly in line for a three-year, $42 million contract with Detroit, but that deal did not materialize as the gambling investigation unfolded. He spent last season out of the league, appearing in 15 games for the Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico’s BSN.
He is also the second NBA player to plead guilty in the federal investigations into league gambling. Jontay Porter was the first. He pleaded guilty in July 2024, and is still awaiting trial.
Beasley’s situation remains a developing story, with his decision to plead guilty bringing a new chapter to the gambling investigation. As the legal process moves forward, attention will remain on how the case unfolds and what it could mean for Beasley’s next steps in professional basketball.