Former NBA star Michael Beasley Breaks Down Talking Loss, Kevin Durant & Needing Help

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find We sat down to talk to Michael Beasley about basketball and ended up having one of the most powerful and honest conversations... The former Number 2 NBA pick, Beasley opens up about his life without basketball and how he feels helpless and alone in a world once filled with money and fame. Breaking down how everyone in his life has stolen from him and created a narrative based on their own judgements of his reactions, Beasley tell Ryan, Fred and Channing how he’s done trying and ready to give up. Fighting through emotions, the guys talk his nba career, the loss of his mother, relationship with Kevin Durant and his current mental health as they try to work through what comes next for the once NBA superstar. Beas finds it important to talk about his own narrative instead of letting everyone think they know what goes on his life. Never judge a book by its cover, we all have stories and journeys that lead us to where we are in life. No matter who we are, we all need help along the way. We commend Beas for opening up and sharing his story and for the vulnerability to help impact others. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out and talk about it, holding things in does none of us any good. Mental Health is not something to take lightly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior like beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 0:28Ryan Clark?

  Of us grow up to get to be individual stars, dawg. Like, we gotta lean on each other. And that's what, like, that's all we was just trying to tell you, dawg. Like, we fuck with you. You know what I'm saying? Like, and we, I'm old. You know what I'm talking about? I'm 42, man. I've been, I've been married since I was 24. My kid's 23. You know what I mean? Like, I got, I got adults, man. So, anything you need, bro, like, I'm willing, I'm willing to be around for that, man. We, we shoot here a lot, dawg. If you just wanna come through and chop it up with us, well, ain't nobody gonna see. It's just gonna be us.

• 0:57Speaker 02

  Hold up. Nigga, some of them kind of finna get me up. I fought to hear the witnesses. Got my people feeling militant. Way I'm feeling got me up. On the mission got me up. Knowing me, I got the key. Only bitchin' I can trust. Trust. Nigga, some of them kind of finna get me up. I fought to hear the witnesses. Got my people feeling militant. Way I'm feeling got me up. On the mission got me up.

• 1:21Ryan Clark?

  So, we're back at the pivot, and this is a real pivot. Freddie T, Channing, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's time to get in the hoops, anyway. Yeah. You know what I mean? Football season is over. And we got Michael Beasley here, second overall pick of the draft to the Miami Heat. We gonna get into it. He went to a ton of high schools, but he went to Kansas State for college. And truly, one of the most natural scorers I've ever seen. He's a part of the first high school class, like, I was really into. And where the, Chris started putting him on ESPN, and, you know, it was, it was him, D-Rose, OJ Mayo, and all these cats. And so ESPN was like, "We gonna pump these dudes out, let you know who they are." Now, when they go to school, we know all of them. And so, you know, when I was looking at Mike, I was like, "Dude can do it all."

• 2:04Ryan Clark?

  But, Mike, take us kinda through what high school was like for you, right? You just went to, did you go to, like, four schools or five in high school?

• 2:12Michael Beasley?

  See, my journey was different, bro. I went to, technically, I went to seven.

• 2:19Ryan Clark?

  Seven high schools?

• 2:21Michael Beasley?

  But I stopped playing high school basketball in the 7th grade, you know, that prep school shit, you know? So...

• 2:27Ryan Clark?

  So you were changing schools to go play basketball? So you had coaches come and get you like, "Hey, come hoop here or come hoop there."

• 2:33Michael Beasley?

  Yeah, yeah, so like, every school I went to,

• 2:37Michael Beasley?

  we like, won the championship in that division. Kind of like, on to the next. I never went to the same school twice.

• 2:43Ryan Clark?

  When you were bouncing around, every time you were bouncing around, for whatever reason, what type of relationships were you able to build through that, though? Or did you always feel like you were alone? And were, and, and how, how did you become Michael Beasley, the basketball star, through all of that?

• 3:01Michael Beasley?

  So you want the real, or you want like...

• 3:02Ryan Clark?

  I want the real, yeah, I want no, like, wait, this the pivot, dawg, like, we ain't here to cut it up.

• 3:06Michael Beasley?

  The real is what we want.

• 3:07Ryan Clark?

  Nobody invited you here, dawg, to not be who you are?

• 3:10Michael Beasley?

  Like, I learned from an early age, nobody care about you unless you good, good at basketball. When I say like, an early age, I mean like,

• 3:19Michael Beasley?

  4, 5 years old. I remember Shaq getting drafted, my uncle coming home, rest in peace. And he had took my cousin to see him.

• 3:30Michael Beasley?

  How the story went, I just remember, that's the first person he ever like, "Shaq this, Shaq this, Shaq this, da da da." And I was just always big as shit my whole life. So every time anybody meet me, it was always, "When you get to the NBA, don't, don't, don't forget about me, don't forget about me, don't forget about me." You know what I'm saying? So, from early on, it was just like, "Play basketball, do what I need and just go," type shit. But like, my family was more into the other side, never more on the street side of life. So I ain't really stopped playing basketball until I was 9. Played for 1 year, didn't like it. My uncle got locked up. Then I ain't played again until I was 11 with KD.

• 4:15Michael Beasley?

  And by the time I was 12...

• 4:18Michael Beasley?

  Fuck just figured out I was good. I don ' t like. They figured out before I was. And we was bouncing around ' cause we was getting evicted every six months, living in shelters and like that, homeless for, you know, whatever. So like when I turned like eleven, twelve, I stopped playing with KD. That ' s when my would stop paying attention, right? And at the time, KD was who he is right now. From day one, like, I ' m gonna score, I ' m gonna score, I ' m gonna score. My job on the team. I ' m gonna get thirty rebounds, I ' m gonna pass that up with the KD. Right. I don ' t watch him score that bitch ' cause at the time, I ain ' t I ain ' t no about basketball. I was more into the street side of life, you know what I ' m saying? I got a. I got a rap sheet that started in fifth grade, my first time getting locked up and all that type of You know what I ' m saying?

• 5:08Michael Beasley?

  So, I stopped playing basketball when I was eleven, kinda, because, you know, just street You know, just just just, wanting to do what dumb is doing. You dig what I ' m saying? But like fourteen, I had to make a decision. Fourteen, I I was on house arrest and you know, it was either I get locked up till I was twenty- one or I play basketball.

• 5:28Channing Crowder?

  Did you have both parents growing up?

• 5:30Michael Beasley?

  Nah, I barely had my mother.

• 5:32Channing Crowder?

  What does it mean when you barely had your mother?

• 5:33Michael Beasley?

  So, so, like my mother had like three jobs. She have she ' d go to work during the day, get home like three, four o ' clock, then she ' d go to her little part- time, then she ' d get home at like nine thirty, ten, and then she ' d go to her nighttime job. We, you know, bartending or whatever she did at night, we don ' t know. She ' d just come back home at like four, five in the morning, six in the morning. Sometimes she ' d come home eight in the morning, you know, we gotta get ourselves ready for school type of shit. You dig what I ' m saying? So like, like five, four, we was raising ourselves.

• 6:06Channing Crowder?

  How did that affect you? How did that affect your future? How did that affect your career? You know what I ' m saying?

• 6:10Michael Beasley?

  Oh, you learn how to eat. You learn how to eat. Like I remember, like I tell people all the time, by the time my brother was like seven, he was making the Zion. Like whoever she worked with at night, Miss Kim. She had uh, she had two sons down the block, you know what I'm saying, Dante and I forgot that one name. But, but they was in high, they was, they, they was the big boys, they was like ninth, eighth or ninth grade at the time, nigga, they was like grown, but you know what I'm saying, I was five. You feel me, so, they had check on us and all that shit, but you know, they had their own shit, sometimes we'd spend the night and all that type of shit.

• 6:44Fred Taylor?

  For, for the most part, it was just us. A lot of us come from, you know, those demographics. I was raised in a house, my mom had five kids. She had me at a young age, she was barely there, my grandmother raised me, but we found a way to make it work. But, there comes a point in time, in every young kid's life, when they realize this is what I wanna do, this is who I am. When did you realize that, you know, basketball was gonna be your path? And when did you realize that you were really fucking good at it?

• 7:13Michael Beasley?

  They realized it for me.

• 7:15Fred Taylor?

  Nah, I, I can't take that.

• 7:17Michael Beasley?

  I'm, I'm giving you, I'm giving you.

• 7:17Fred Taylor?

  Because you, you didn't have that confidence?

• 7:20Michael Beasley?

  I went from like hearing sirens every day, and like gunshots, and being homeless, and... Like, when I say getting evicted, I don't mean it's like this little baby shit in Miami where motherfucker give you thirty days to get out my shit, and then you don't get thirty days, you get da-da-da, like this nigga's going through, that's baby shit. I'm talking about coming home, and your living room sat on a, on a, on a, on a lawn outside.

• 7:45Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 7:45Michael Beasley?

  You dig what I'm saying? I'm talking about, my mother ain't play, I don't give a fuck. If your brain falling out, that homework ain't done, she gonna whip your damn ass. You dig what I'm saying? So, living room sat outside, we doing homework and shit, you dig what I'm saying? I'm talking about.

• 8:00Fred Taylor?

  Still gotta get it.

• 8:01Michael Beasley?

  I went from that to, soon as I figured out I liked basketball, to, damn, who this white man, who that?

• 8:10Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 8:11Michael Beasley?

  Who this, who that, who that? And at first, it was like, family, family, family, but then when I got there, like, everybody was wanting, wanting their check back.

• 8:19Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 8:20Michael Beasley?

  You dig what I'm saying? Everybody, everybody you thought loved you, just love what you can do. And then you start thinking back, like, literally, I ain't getting invited to no parties, no high school, nah, I ain't getting invited to no dinners, no da-da-da-da, but it was time to play basketball. Hey, Debo, my whole life, you dig what I'm saying? So it's like... That's all I'm good at, right? That's all I am. My whole life, that's all I am. Like, right now, that's all I get criticized for. Like, everybody look at me, like, oh, you're hot, like, you just live off talent. You just look like, no, my whole life was like fight. Nah, I wasn't fighting growing up, because at the time, like, my, like, my mother was gangster, don't get me wrong. You dig what I'm saying?

• 9:03Michael Beasley?

  I'm telling you all this, hindsight speaking, by the way. Like, my early years, it was it was just what it is, it's just it's what we live at.

• 9:12Fred Taylor?

  Did basketball become your safe haven? It was an outlet from all the other stuff that you was experiencing and going through? Is that why you got so good at it? Because you spent more time there? And got away from the other stuff?

• 9:25Michael Beasley?

  Like, basketball is all I think about, right? On top of it being the only thing I had to do, it was really the only thing I loved, so so that, like, made it easy. That's what I'm telling you, like

• 9:38Michael Beasley?

  I ain't really noticed I was in the hood until you came over. And seeing I had roaches on my Playstation and like, oh, you know what I'm saying, like, we don't know we living bad until somebody around us come around living good. You dig what I'm saying? Like, what's that movie where the football player grew up and he

• 9:56Fred Taylor?

  The Blind Side.

• 9:57Michael Beasley?

  You know what I'm saying, Blind Side?

• 9:57Fred Taylor?

  Michael Ora story, yep.

• 9:58Michael Beasley?

  He got a line in there, he said, I ain't have my own bedroom or some shit like that. We ain't have our own covers. Like, you said, my mother had five kids. My grandmother stayed with us. And she got a son that she never, she could never kick out, still, still the day. He got six kids. We in a two-bedroom. Y'all motherfuckers complaining about bedrooms, beds and covers. We used to have to turn the coats upside down and put our legs in them.

• 10:26Fred Taylor?

  Wow.

• 10:26Michael Beasley?

  You know what I'm saying? So it's like, I ain't trying to handle all this sauce.

• 10:32Ryan Clark?

  But like for real, so when you look at your career and the the place that you've come from, you know, you talk and the the reason you were drafted where you were was about talent. And you say basketball is the only thing you love, basketball is the only thing you think about.

• 10:50Michael Beasley?

  Yeah, but the narrative is wrong because y'all all

• 10:52Ryan Clark?

  I was about to ask, I was about to ask that.

• 10:53Michael Beasley?

  Y'all all think that I just fell on this talent. Like, I don't chop in my shit up. Like, I don't work on, like, I don't think, like, I don't look at film. Y'all all see, I wanted to get tattoos because that's who I, you know what I'm saying? Everybody see see me and make they own narrative and and I just shut up. I get around you and I get around you and I get around you and I'm three different motherfuckers. Four, because I'm already here, you know what I'm saying? And I gotta sit there and watch a billion motherfuckers tell me what they think or what they did or what they would have did or what they ah ah without hearing shit from me. And I gotta, you dig what I'm saying? And I'm forced to pick and choose what to say, when to say it and why. And it's like, fuck that now, I ain't got nothing to lose.

• 11:37Channing Crowder?

  But you can control your own narrative.

• 11:39Michael Beasley?

  Now, this one, this old podcast, I just told my man, I just, I just pulled up to this, I thought we was on some podcast chill on the couch. Bro, this ESPN, this is just, what the fuck is you talking about? You can do this shit now. When I first got into the motherfucking league, they had to take the fucking Twitter away from me because like, I'm not these niggas. Like, I've been, I've been me way before this basketball shit. You dig what I'm saying?

• 12:04Channing Crowder?

  Bro, I played down here in Miami and I was down here when you got drafted and I was down here, we done been in the club together and all. And I was telling them about you. I was like, he's a real dude. Like, he's a real dude.

• 12:13Michael Beasley?

  It ain't even about being a real dude or a fake dude or a, I'm me. You dig what I'm saying? I can't be nothing else but me. I ain't real to you. I might be real to you. I might be fake to you. I ain't trying to make everybody else happy, but I got in trouble for that. ' t. You dig what I ' m saying? Like I literally came in there

• 12:28Channing Crowder?

  With who? With who? With who?

• 12:30Michael Beasley?

  The world. Everything I did was on a f ' n microscope. Everything I did wrong, right and indifferent. And all I wanted to do was play basketball. Every time they said something f ' up about me, I was in the f ' n gym playing basketball. Every time they said I got pulled over with a bag of f ' n weed, I would. Every time somebody f ' n lied on me about something f, well, I was in the, well, f everybody. That ' s how I feel. And I sit there and and and I work and I work and I work and I work and I work and I put hours in, I put hours in, I put hours in. And I watch everybody else make their own narrative. We didn ' t get this when I was young. They told us to shut the up. Two thousand eight coming in there, all we had is Twitter and Facebook. When you stepped wrong, it was f ' up.

• 13:15Michael Beasley?

  I remember I walked in a f ' n club and somebody was smoking a Blackamout. Somebody tweeted about that shit. I went to the f gym and I got in trouble for it, like I had it in my hand. I can ' t, I couldn ' t do shit. And and and now that it ' s your own narrative,

• 13:32Channing Crowder?

  Does it give you a place where you can speak freely?

• 13:34Michael Beasley?

  No, f no.

• 13:36Channing Crowder?

  Why not?

• 13:37Michael Beasley?

  When you been in a place that ' s like turning the rent like upside down for so long, how the you know when it ' s up? How how you know what the to say, how to to say when you ' ve been trying to be the right person for so many people for so how the who the are you? And that ' s what I ' m saying. My whole career, my whole f ' n life. You ask me how I build relationships, I didn ' t. I didn ' t. I didn ' t know how to. Every year was somebody new. It was a new class. It was new class, same and shoes. Like, I wore the same shoes from from from in nine to fourteen. You dig what I ' m saying? Hooping, busting my mother ass. Nobody right about that. Like, I went through real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real in every step of the way.

• 14:25Michael Beasley?

  It was And ain't nobody wanna get, ain't nobody wanna put that on a pedestal. Ain't nobody wanna put a story behind that.

• 14:33Fred Taylor?

  See, but that's why with what we do, in all actuality, I know it might sound cliche, but this is definitely a safe space for you to express that. This isn't ESPN. You know, we control this platform. This is our shit. You know, what, your message is your message. We ain't edit, we ain't chopping.

• 14:52Michael Beasley?

  Yeah, but at this point, I don't got a message no more 'cause it's so many different messages. You dig what I'm saying? Like, bro, at this point, at-

• 14:59Fred Taylor?

  No, no, no, no, no. The narrative was painted then. But like I just said, this is our shit. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're hearing it from the horse's mouth, regardless of what the picture or the perception was painted of you. They're hearing it from you. Whether they believe it or not, it's coming from you. And we ain't editing this shit to fit, you know, with, with, with the network. We don't have to do that. So for me, it's, um, invigorating, right? And refreshing to hear you say what you're saying, man. It speaks volumes to me. I, I've never thought you was mentally fucked up. I've always heard of you as, as a hard worker. I know some people that you know, guys that say, oh, he just misunderstood, but he gonna bust his ass, he gonna work.

• 15:44Fred Taylor?

  And that's what I love about it. But the, the media will never be in your shoes.

• 16:21Michael Beasley?

  They get paid to be journalists. I asked, like, at this point, I asking media to be in my shoes, right? Like, what a guy to be in Delonte West shoes to get help? It's crazy.

• 16:34Channing Crowder?

  Right? And that's Mark Cuban, Mark Cuban reached out to him.

• 16:37Michael Beasley?

  And no disrespect to Delonte West, and no disrespect to nobody involved in all, in, in, in his shoes. That's a perfect question. Nah, it makes sense. But it's like, like, like, what does it take to do the right thing, right? Imagine somebody getting shot right there. What's the first thing you gonna yell? Somebody get him some help. We all eating good.

• 16:56Ryan Clark?

  True.

• 16:57Michael Beasley?

  Somebody ain't got no food. Somebody get him some food. Right? Just a little bit of your plate, your plate, your, somebody ain't got no money over, yo, somebody get him some money. It's the same thing, like, how, like, like, how many different ways do a person gotta, gotta get shot metaphorically for, for help to be, you dig what I'm saying? It's like, my whole life, I asked for help.

• 17:21Michael Beasley?

  Help, help, help, help from my favorite athletes, from my favorite celebrities, from my favorite people in the world. Everybody, and it's like, everybody just like, either call me crazy, or just, you know, I don't wanna get into personal, personal, but like...

• 17:41Ryan Clark?

  Fred was talking about the way you work. Everything I see from you now, you in the gym. You, you talking in the gym. Somebody's talking about you, about you being in the gym. And we're talking about narrative. And Fred's trying to tell you that here, you can control that narrative. How that narrative is perceived and how other people use it, we can't fix. You can't fix that. But you're asking, you're saying right now, how many different ways should I have asked for help or shown I needed help? What type of help did you need? What was the help you were searching for?

• 18:13Michael Beasley?

  What kind of help we all need? You know, I seen y'all talk about it on y'all, uh, one of y'all podcasts. My fuck is coming in with the entourage and I ain't had not one person in this motherf- like, like, that, that didn't steal. I, I don't know, I don't know nobody that ain't stole from me, period. Like, period from, you know what I'm saying? Like, everybody except for my kids stole from me. And every step of the way, I asked for help. Bro, how this, how that? I'm talking about this person, I don't drop names. I ain't into making my story about nobody else. I don't want nobody naming to whatever I got going on, you know what I'm saying?

• 18:50Channing Crowder?

  No, a hundred percent.

• 18:51Michael Beasley?

  You dig what I'm saying? So, I, I, I asked my [bleep] that's getting it. My [bleep] that's got it. I'm talking about money, endorsements, I'm talking about everything. Like, bro, how do I do this, bro? How do I do that, bro? How do I turn this? How do I get this? How do I get them to take me serious? How, how, how, how, how, how? And every text message left on read, so I, like, nobody would tell me what the right thing to do, right? Nobody would tell me what to do. Don't do this, don't do this, but then soon as I do something, everybody would tell me it's wrong, though. Like, my whole life has been like that. Conduct yourself, conduct yourself, conduct yourself, conduct yourself. And it's like, I, I, I conduct myself, but then...

• 19:32Channing Crowder?

  You, you haven't felt like you had that right circle around you your whole life now? Let's speak on, you know what I'm saying, like, the financial advisor?

• 19:40Michael Beasley?

  Not one time.

• 19:41Channing Crowder?

  The, the spiritual advisor, whatever people need, like, you haven't found, you haven't found that group of people that make you feel like you said.

• 19:48Michael Beasley?

  I, I went from, like, my first AAU tournament, like, I ain't know where AAU was, like, when I was young. You dig what I'm saying? Like, I played Boys and Girls Club when I was nine. I played Boys and Girls Club when I was 11 with KD. That's the first time, 11 years old, with Kevin Durant and PG Jaguar, was the first time I got on the bus and left the city of DC. So, I ain't know what AAU basketball was. You dig what I'm saying? My uncle got locked up for five years, so basketball in my family was shut down. It was all street [bleep] and, and you just get it, like, full stamps and, and you know what I'm saying? We just jigging to, to whenever we got a jig, you dig what I'm saying?

• 20:30Michael Beasley?

  My mother was doing her part, it's, but like I said, she, she worked so many jobs that, you know, we was just doing what we was doing.

• 20:35Fred Taylor?

  What, what's you and KD's relationship like today? Do you guys talk?

• 20:39Michael Beasley?

  I mean, like, I don't talk to nobody right now.

• 20:41Channing Crowder?

  That's a problem, bro.

• 20:43Michael Beasley?

  It's not a problem because...

• 20:46Michael Beasley?

  I I've spoken to people. I'm not gonna make my problems your problem. You know what I'm saying? I I can only ask for help and tuck my pride so many times before I wonder why I'm not getting to work out on certain da da da da da da da. So I speak to him, but I don't keep it on. I don't never ask him about basketball. I don't never put that type of shit on his plate because one, he got a lot of shit on his plate already. And two, like, I don't never want to put my job or my livelihood or anything like that. And you dig what I'm saying?

• 21:21Channing Crowder?

  No, bro, as a man, though, like, as a man, not, I'm not talking about trying to get a job. You know what I'm saying? I'm talking about as a man to call your homeboy that you know, bro, that you've known since 11, correct?

• 21:32Michael Beasley?

  Yeah.

• 21:32Channing Crowder?

  That you've known since 11.

• 21:34Michael Beasley?

  It ain't like that no more.

• 21:35Channing Crowder?

  And talk to him about, about, about the things that, the things in his mind, bro.

• 21:37Ryan Clark?

  We also have to realize I can know somebody for 27 years and know somebody I've known for 27 days more. He said that he didn't get an opportunity to build relationships.

• 21:49Michael Beasley?

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying about me. I know.

• 21:51Ryan Clark?

  I'm not talking about KD. No, I'm talking about just in life. And so sometimes it's hard to trust.

• 21:55Michael Beasley?

  At this point, I've said secrets with people that turn secrets into information. Like I said, I'm talking about my own mother stole, remember, R P, my own mother stole from me. You feel me? Like, like, I had to wake up one day in the league, one day in the summertime and find out everybody was stealing from me down. Everybody from my financial advisor, from my mom, to everybody in my fucking family, to everybody was, you dig what I'm saying? To the point where.

• 22:23Channing Crowder?

  You're getting the cut.

• 22:24Michael Beasley?

  To the point where I had, I was faced with two evils. It's like, okay, do I, do I let this go on and not tell them? Because this is my family.

• 22:36Michael Beasley?

  Or do I cut them off and don't have no family?

• 22:39Fred Taylor?

  What was your decision?

• 22:41Michael Beasley?

  At first, I just, you know, I tried to explain to them, but you, you can't explain million of the problems to somebody ain't never seen ten dollars before. You dig what I'm saying? So at first, you try to explain, and then my best analogy for the situation was like, um, yo, listen, we, we on this boat right now, right? And it's, it's a slight leak in the boat. If I get on this life raft and, and get, get to the water, not only could I come back with help for the boat, but I can come back with a bigger, I can come back with a mega yacht.

• 23:09Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 23:10Michael Beasley?

  And we'll be straight, I'm trying to tell you. Or, we can just be piled on this boat and see this motherfucker just float, and then, then, I'm telling y'all, when this motherfucker sink, and me and mine gonna get up off this motherfucker. You know what I'm saying? Cause I got kids that ain't got nothing to do with what y'all got going on. Y'all just gonna be in the water somewhere.

• 23:27Ryan Clark?

  In the type of life you've lived, Mike, and you say, the only people in your life who haven't stolen from you are your kids. Now that you are an adult, now that at least right now, you're out of basketball, are you searching out other people to build adult relationships with? Or are you so, or is everything that's happened in your life been so difficult?

• 23:48Michael Beasley?

  You want me to be real with you?

• 23:50Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 23:54Michael Beasley?

  I don't leave the house. I play basketball and I go home. I don't care what y'all do no more. Like, all I care about is playing basketball all day. I go home, and I try to talk to my kids as much as I can. I don't see them as much as I can, cause I don't, I'm not traveling as much no more. I don't know what to expect when I leave this house no more. You dig? You know what I'm saying? I don't talk to nobody. You know what I'm saying? I, I, I've reached out, and I've reached out, and I've reached out, and I've reached out, and I've reached out so more that I, I gotta, I gotta die with some kind of, some kind of dignity.

• 24:28Channing Crowder?

  B, that's not sustainable. Like, you too young, bro. That's not sustainable, bro. You can still play ball. That's not sustainable.

• 24:35Michael Beasley?

  So, so, so, so I can come up here, I can tell you somebody else's life, and I'm willing to do it, and I'm gonna turn my head backward, I'm gonna put a smile on for you, and I'm like, bro, I'm gonna tell you-

• 24:43Channing Crowder?

  You don't gotta put nothing on for me.

• 24:44Michael Beasley?

  Or, or I can just sit back, and I'm gonna tell you what it is. Like, I, I'm not, I, like, like, I know that's not sustainable, but at the same time, like- What?

• 24:55Ryan Clark?

  Please, none of us can do it, none of us can do it alone, bro.

• 24:59Channing Crowder?

  Reach out because you have to change the narrative. Go out, talk to people, interact with people, like, bruh, real talk. I'll call us out, us three. Bruh, you be in Miami?

• 25:11Michael Beasley?

  Y'all party, I don't party, bro.

• 25:13Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, we don't party, bro. I'm talking about, you have kids, I have kids. Come to my house, we can get bounce houses for the kids, we can sit back on the porch, drink a couple beers, drink some wine, hang out. Like, bruh, that's not a normal, successful man's life to sit up in the house like that. Like, you gotta find good people, and us three can be good people, you know what I'm saying? Like, bro, it's not, that's not sustainable, bro.

• 25:37Michael Beasley?

  No disrespect to what y'all got going on.

• 25:42Michael Beasley?

  I've been trying to find good people for so long.

• 25:47Michael Beasley?

  I'm tired, bro.

• 25:50Ryan Clark?

  I would say this, it's a 100% bro, it's so okay to be tired, though.

• 25:54Michael Beasley?

  I got... You know what I'm saying?

• 25:57Channing Crowder?

  You ain't got nothing left. You ain't got nothing left to give people.

• 26:01Ryan Clark?

  I'll tell you this, bro, I'll be it. Like, whatever you need, dawg, like, you just wanna talk? Like, I for sure can hoop with you, I'll go out there and pass that hoe. Like, what we're saying is, bro, like, we wanna be those people. Bringing you here wasn't about this, I wanted to talk basketball and hoops, but, dawg, folks love you, dawg. Nobody wanna see you go through this.

• 26:21Channing Crowder?

  I got me a BZ jersey out the motherfucking house, cuz I was down here when he got drafted.

• 26:27Ryan Clark?

  I think the thing is, man, like, so many times, as black men, we are asked because of talent to carry everybody, we are not made to carry everybody. Black women are asked to carry everybody, they are not made to carry everybody. Dawg, it takes a fucking village, bro. And at some point, you gotta have somebody who don't need shit from you, who don't want shit from you, who wanna see you win, man. Like, we don't, we don't do this shit for us. Yeah, like, like, you wanna build these things, but it's about these conversations. It's about bringing people on here and letting them tell their story. When Freddie said, man, you could tell your narrative, tell that shit and I'll preach it too. What we saying is, man, don't give up, and we won't give up.

• 27:10Fred Taylor?

  I can ' t say I know exactly what you ' re going through, but I ' ve seen a lot of, I ' ve I ' ve heard a lot of stories and I ' ve seen a lot of guys that have come from our demographic and our background. They really, you know, they they they they fight. They fight and they bust they ass.

• 27:26Michael Beasley?

  Nah, but but but but but but but everybody just sit there and laugh like like like Antoine Walker go through the whatever he go through. Motherfuckers sit there and make jokes. Allen Iverson was a fucking joke for a while until everybody find out that ' s wasn ' t true. He can ' t he can ' t he turn. It ' s like, bro, no, bro. Being black is so is fake right now. It ' s like motherfuckers only care when you when when it ' s time for somebody to die and the cameras to show. It ' s like, bro, motherfuckers out here showing every fucking day that they need help. It ' s in the and music and we only listen to it to these is die.

• 28:15Michael Beasley?

  It ' s like, bro, everybody out here need fucking help and everybody walking around this motherfucker like they got it all together. Everybody, everybody, everybody walking. And then the second time, like like like, bro, Dwight Howard cried on TV, right? They called the are soft. What the fuck he was going through on the inside, he had to fucking hold on to where he fucking cried in front of twenty million people. How about somebody ask that fucking question? You dig what I ' m saying? It ' s just so much that motherfuckers go through and and it ' s like, bro, they like, nigga, it ' s it ' s on front it ' s on front street. It ' s just like, until until a mother or break down or die, it ' s like, oh, I oh, it makes sense now. It makes sense now. And it

• 28:37Fred Taylor?

  You ' re right.

• 28:54Fred Taylor?

  Mike, you ' re a walking, you you are a walking testimony, bro. You have so much greater good to get done. You talking about all these fucking kids that came up like you? The kids that are gonna go through a lot of the same shit.

• 29:07Channing Crowder?

  My Freddie, you came up like him.

• 29:09Fred Taylor?

  But I'm talking about the kids that are coming up. Because I got to a place where I found myself. This is what he's doing. But what he has to understand is, his message is so much more powerful.

• 29:21Michael Beasley?

  Well, all I wanna do is play basketball, man.

• 29:23Channing Crowder?

  And let, bro, let's funnel it though.

• 29:25Michael Beasley?

  Like, like even, even doing this right here, this is a lot.

• 29:29Fred Taylor?

  It is, but it, it.

• 29:30Michael Beasley?

  This is a lot, bro.

• 29:31Fred Taylor?

  But like I said, it's, it's, it's, it's, people need to see, hear this.

• 29:35Michael Beasley?

  Like, my whole career, all I just wanna do is play basketball. Leave me alone and let me play basketball.

• 29:42Ryan Clark?

  How did they take that from you?

• 29:43Michael Beasley?

  Every which way, what do you mean? Every way, I'm the only player in the [__] history of history that's gotten, gotten whatever off the court and held accountable on the court. Like, if you look at my numbers, if you look at how I play the game, if you look like, bro, there's no reason in hell I should not be playing basketball. You dig what I'm saying? Like, I can, I can per thirty-six it, I can, like, my, my, my rookie here averaged thirteen and six on twenty minutes. Jason Tatum averaged thirteen and six in thirty-six minutes, and they just gave him a chance to play basketball. I've never gotten a chance to play basketball.

• 30:28Michael Beasley?

  Everywhere I've gone, I've shown that I should be playing basketball, and I've always watched more than half the game. And then, watching more than half the game, I watched the narrative go, this is why he's not playing, this is why, this is why, so it's like, oh yeah.

• 30:45Ryan Clark?

  Mike, when you look at your actions, though, is there anything in what you did, and what you've went through, and what you've been, that played a part in you not being able to play basketball? And can we fix those things?

• 30:58Michael Beasley?

  So, so, so that's a double-edged question. I'ma say, I ain't do this, I ain't do, everybody in jail's saying that, right? There's a common denominator in every sin, every situation you've been in. Every situation you've been in, every situation is you, one hundred percent. I'm not gonna sit there and eat all of the [__] pie, though. Right? Man, we can sit here and say, have I done this, have I done this? And we can sit there and look at the last three years and, and, and, and, and [__] have done way worse.

• 31:33Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 32:03Michael Beasley?

  And got paid way more. And the money, bro, I'm just trying to play basketball. That's it. My whole career, I haven't been able to play basketball. And then when I go outside, I gotta fight this perception that people think I...

• 32:21Channing Crowder?

  What was that created by, bro? Like, do you sit back and think about...

• 32:27Michael Beasley?

  What was it created by?

• 32:28Channing Crowder?

  Like when people see Michael Beasley, like...

• 32:31Michael Beasley?

  Yeah, I sit back and I think about it all the time, bro. I just talk, bro, right?

• 32:36Michael Beasley?

  I'm not scared to cry in front of grown men because at the same time you call me soft, I'll beat the out you. Just straight up. This, this, you know what I'm saying? I've been a sacrificial lamb my whole life. Right? I ain't gonna lie, I used to do shit the way I used to get my ass whipped and shit like that. But I used to get my ass whipped so much that like my brothers and sisters and shit, like when something, something happened, they'd come negotiate with me like, yo, you know, you only gonna get your ass whipped for like, like two minutes. Because you know what I'm saying? You always, she's expecting you to get your ass whipped. But you know what I'm saying? Like if, if, if we did it, bro, we gonna get ass whipped all night. So like, my whole life, I've learned how to be the sacrificial lamb. You dig what I'm saying?

• 33:19Michael Beasley?

  It's like, like I've, I've, I've always learned how to just be the butt of the joke.

• 33:23Channing Crowder?

  Like you talking about getting your ass whipped as a kid? My sister, bro, my sister whipped me with a, you know the S10? The old antennas you can screw off? Like the antennas on a truck that you can screw off? My sister screwed one off and whipped my back with it. I was bleeding on my back.

• 33:40Michael Beasley?

  Oh, no, I, I, like, I'm 6'10" and my tallest sibling is maybe 6 feet. I, like, bro, my, I beat this [__] up dumb. We ain't, but we ain't fighters, man. So, I'm talking about, I used to take the, I used to take the ass up from my mom.

• 33:53Channing Crowder?

  But I'm just saying, being light-skinned with pretty eyes, like, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta be tougher than everybody, alright?

• 33:58Michael Beasley?

  Yeah, like, growing up in DC, it was Chocolate City. I was, I was the white boy growing up. I ain't seen, I ain't seen a white person till I turned maybe 13.

• 34:06Channing Crowder?

  You ain't seen a white person till you turned 13 years old?

• 34:10Michael Beasley?

  What about?

• 34:11Fred Taylor?

  It sounds like Charles Haley.

• 34:12Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 34:13Fred Taylor?

  That's crazy. I think, I think you got all your faculties. You know, I hear people talk about your mental health, that you ain't. I think you're crying out for help, right? And not crying. And I think people can easily get that confused. This is my first time meeting you in person. I followed your career.

• 34:35Fred Taylor?

  And, and I really think that, well, I would really like to know what's next for you, because we gotta get you out the house. You can't be in the house, bro. Not all the time.

• 34:47Channing Crowder?

  Can't be in the house, bro.

• 34:48Fred Taylor?

  Your story, your message, the fact that, the fact that you can help people.

• 34:52Channing Crowder?

  Smooth [__].

• 34:53Fred Taylor?

  You got OGs around here, like, you know, I don't know if Zo is still doing it in Overtown, but they, they work in the community. You're, you're a heat, like, you, you, you've been here.

• 35:04Channing Crowder?

  I, bro, I, bro.

• 35:06Fred Taylor?

  You got a story, you got a message.

• 35:08Channing Crowder?

  Fred, Fred, Fred. I want you to come to the house with your kids and play on the bounce house. I want you to come play on the bounce house with the kids. Are y'all trying to hoop? I hoop. I'll lock your big ass down.

• 35:20Ryan Clark?

  B, so my, my question to you is, man, and I think, I think we've all, like, we all have different personalities, right? Like, when Channing and things are tense, he's gonna try to make people laugh. Fred's gonna try to make people feel good. And I'm gonna try to figure, figure [__] out. I don't know about them. Like, for me... To see someone like you, right? Like you said, like you're tough. Like, people don't sit in that seat and say things like, like, if you laugh at me, I'll tell a joke or whatever, and I'll whip you. Right? Like, I understand that mentality. First thing I'm trying to say is, you don't have to have that mentality with us. But what I'm asking is, you keep saying, all you want to do is play basketball. If that never becomes, I could play basketball for money again.

• 36:03Ryan Clark?

  If it's just, I just get to go to the gym and hoop, what else you gonna do?

• 36:07Michael Beasley?

  I've been in the gym for four years, playing basketball.

• 36:10Ryan Clark?

  So what else, what else can you do, other than play basketball?

• 36:13Michael Beasley?

  I can do a lot.

• 36:14Ryan Clark?

  So let's do that.

• 36:16Michael Beasley?

  Why?

• 36:18Ryan Clark?

  Because we can't, we can't just take our ball home and die.

• 36:21Michael Beasley?

  Says who?

• 36:23Ryan Clark?

  Says, I don't want you to.

• 36:25Channing Crowder?

  B's, we all gotta retire, bro. We all gotta retire. Sooner or later.

• 36:30Michael Beasley?

  Yeah, but I'm gonna retire, like, how I want to retire. Right? I can't live my life on your terms. Like, I can't, I can't just let my dream die. Right? So, no.

• 36:42Fred Taylor?

  People are gonna always remember you more for how you made them feel, than what the [bleep] you did on the court, on the field, or any other [bleep] in sport. Sports is just entertainment, but a feeling lasts a lifetime.

• 36:54Michael Beasley?

  Yeah, I'm not gonna-

• 36:55Fred Taylor?

  And if you can give that back to people, your job will be done. Because that sport [bleep] ain't gonna last forever. You got, you're 33. You might have four years, max, left in the tank, to play at an ultimate high level. But after that, I'm 46.

• 37:13Michael Beasley?

  I'm be, I'm be, I'm be real with you. I'm be real with you. They took, they took everything from me as, like, along the way, right? I ain't been able to play basketball, I ain't been able to talk, talk for myself. Like, they laughed at me every, like, like, every step of the way, right? Like, every step of the way. My mom died, and they laughed. Right?

• 37:38Ryan Clark?

  The short incident, same thing. Somebody passed.

• 37:41Michael Beasley?

  So, so you want to have that?

• 37:42Ryan Clark?

  You was dealing with stuff-

• 37:43Michael Beasley?

  Like, I left the team in October, right? Because, like, I found out my mom had cancer. This is why New York was so, this, like, that's why that season was so, like, New York meant a lot to me, because-

• 37:56Ryan Clark?

  You drive to your mom.

• 37:57Michael Beasley?

  I was so close. You dig what I'm saying? I get back and now all I got is FaceTime phone calls as well, right? You know what I'm saying? And, and they just regular ass phone calls. Like, yo, what's up? Yo, ah, what's up? You know what I'm saying? Oh, man, this, nah, I got my little brother living with me at the time. You know what I'm saying? Cause he was living with her and, you know, she's just sent him with me. So I got him with me now. So we just talked to her today. Ah, just whatever. Right after training camp, he went home and she FaceTimed me and it was the same. But he FaceTimed my other phone and showed me the other, like, the other angle. And like, it wasn't the same.

• 38:40Michael Beasley?

  Like, them little five-minute phone, FaceTime phone calls, that was like literally all she had left. While she's sitting there faking it for five minutes, letting us, making us think of this, oh, ah, ah. I'm over here, I'm, damn, so now I gotta go home. I'm there for six weeks. October, I leave right before, right before her birthday, which my dumb ass was so... You ever been so optimistic that you turn stupid? Right? That's how I feel about basketball. I was so pressed to get back to the team when I don't know why the f**k I was pressed, cause I wasn't playing anyway. When I get there, that's, that's when I find out she's on hospice. Like, that's the day, like, when I get home, that's the day they, they put her on hospice, right? I find out she first driving herself from chemo.

• 39:24Michael Beasley?

  I don't know if y'all ever, ever had anybody on cancer.

• 39:27Ryan Clark?

  Our producer had cancer.

• 39:29Michael Beasley?

  You had cancer? So you understand how strong you had to be, right? She don't... Until she get put on hospice. So that, that's why I'm home for six weeks, right? So I leave right before her birthday, right? I get back, I'm, I'm there for maybe a week to... My aunt called me and was like, she might not, you know? So now I go back home, like, I watched the strongest person in my life turn to a raisin. To the point where, like, like, she was walking up and down the steps and then she, like, brought her bed down. And she couldn't walk no more. Like, you ever watch somebody die?

• 40:14Michael Beasley?

  I watched her last breath. You dig what I'm saying? I watched her last breath, like...

• 40:20Michael Beasley?

  And that ' s happen so slow that you wanna walk away, but as soon as you do, it ' s like, oh shit. Right. I watched that shit. Corners come take her away. Go down there, smoke a J F. and you know what I ' m saying? We dig it. Cause she ain ' t cry. Like I swear to God, she ain ' t cry one time. She ain ' t look at me and say, why me? She ain ' t look at me and say, nah. She looked at me and she ' s like, well, fuck it. How many this you know got shot? How many motherfuckers got hit by a bus? At least I can tell y ' all my is. I ' m out. You dig what I ' m saying? I like my mother was a G. So, go downstairs, we smoke, ah, ah, we get everything together, get the funeral together. It was gangster by the way she had the horse taken. You know what I ' m saying? I ' m talking about it was gangster.

• 41:05Michael Beasley?

  She went out like a thug. You dig what I ' m saying? We buried her on January first. I get back on January the fourth, I wanna say. We in Oklahoma, regular night chilling. I ' m saying, I, I, I, whatever. I wake up the next day, I find out my cousin James died. So now I gotta go downstairs and tell him like, yo, I might gotta leave again ' cause my, you know what I ' m saying? And, and at this point, I ' m like, bro, so many people dying. I ' m starting to think they this fate. You know what I ' m saying? I don ' t want them to think I ' m, I just don ' t wanna play basketball or nothing. So I went to him reluctantly like, bro, yo, my cousin died and I might have to go to the funeral. And that was the day before Oklahoma. So, I ' m sitting there for two days, just like trying to, trying to figure out if I ' m gonna leave, I ' m I ' m gonna leave, I ' m not gonna.

• 41:54Michael Beasley?

  I go to the game, ' cause I ' m like, bro, I was gone for six six weeks.

• 41:59Channing Crowder?

  That ' s what a short thing, oh, they have.

• 42:01Michael Beasley?

  I was supposed to leave that morning, and I just decided not to leave.

• 42:06Channing Crowder?

  Is there anybody to talk to in season when something like that ' s going on?

• 42:10Michael Beasley?

  No. No.

• 42:12Channing Crowder?

  There ' s nobody on the team to talk to. There ' s nobody to express that to.

• 42:16Michael Beasley?

  Man, I tell you, secrets turn into information, right? Like my like like.

• 42:22Michael Beasley?

  It's always somebody on the inside that's gonna tell what's going on. And it's like, bro, at that point, I don't even know who to trust no more because it's like, when I was growing up, like, whatever you was going, anything you was going through was just like, it wasn't mental health, it wasn't he crying out for help, it wasn't, nothing other than, oh, it's just distracting him from basketball. That's your problem. That's your problem, it's distracting him from basketball. You dig what I'm saying? So, like, nah, I had nobody to talk to. And every time I tried to talk to somebody, it was just always, oh, oh, he crazy, that's crazy B, that's just, oh, he just crazy, crazy. Like, bro, like, I wanna name my book Too True to Be Funny. You know what I'm saying? Because, like, I can tell you what's going on, and, like, like, you won't, like, you just laugh at it. We won't laugh at it.

• 43:07Ryan Clark?

  I think, I think the, the biggest thing is, bruh, like, that's not funny. The, the things that you've been through aren't funny, man, and we ain't laughing. I, I'm really grateful, though. You shared your story. I think you changed everybody on this set. You definitely changed anything I've ever heard about a narrative about Michael Beasley, bruh. I couldn't be more grateful for you to be here. And all I wanted you to know, like, I wanna get your number, I want you to leave with my number, I think you should leave with their number. You use it if you want, man, but we here at all, like, the you going through, unfortunately, you ain't the first. And Freddie said that your story can help. Your story helped us, man.

• 43:44Fred Taylor?

  It's powerful, bro. You don't realize you got some power with you.

• 43:48Ryan Clark?

  And we are, I'm just, and we grateful you came, man, like, and what we hoping is that you now pivot to be the best Mike you can be, man, and we appreciate you, though. All love, bruh.

• 44:02Fred Taylor?

  Keep opening up, bro. I'm, I'm deadass serious.

• 44:05Ryan Clark?

  Appreciate you, man. All love, bro. I don't have to fall through these fucking tears over here, though.

• 44:11Fred Taylor?

  Man, you got some power with you, man. You gotta share it, though.

• 44:40Speaker 06

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 44:50Speaker 07

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