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![Brandon Ingram: [Laughs]. I don’t know if we would’ve …](https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/gcdn/content-pipeline-sports-images/sports2/nba/players/214152.png?format=png8&auto=webp&quality=85,75&width=140)
During that 2018-19 Lakers season, things were looking bright until LeBron James went down with a groin injury. Do you think that squad was talented enough to make the Finals if everyone had stayed healthy? Brandon Ingram: [Laughs]. I don’t know if we would’ve made the Finals, but I will say we were a very talented team. We had our young core in their second and third years—Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma, Ivica Zubac. We had LeBron, Rondo, and Michael Beasley. It was a smart group. We would have had a chance, but we were also pretty inexperienced. I’m not sure about the Finals, but we were definitely talented enough to make a real run in the playoffs.
Q. You averaged 30 in the NBA. I'm going to be straight with you: You supposed to still be there. Michael Beasley: My body thinks so. But then, everything happens for a reason. Lately, I just been trying to not even figure out, just accept that reason. Just living in my emotions trying to figure those out. But I think if I was supposed to, I would be there. And not to like hurt nobody's feelings or not to say that I don't want to be there or not to say that, we about to go hoop right now. Q. You still get to hoop. Beasley: Yeah. I love hooping. But it's just, how long I am supposed to stand outside in your yard with the mariachi band?
Michael Beasley: He was my first real, real, real friend. He was my first, like first real friend. I just knew he was going to be KD. I ain't knew Kevin Durant was going to be on our shoes, I just knew he was going to be KD. I got an intuition like that. And it's like I can see sh*t before it happens, but I don't know if it's going to be good or bad. So like most time I just shut my mouth.
Michael Beasley: Everybody looked at me every time like I'm high. Now I'm back pissing every Monday. Back pissing every Monday from 21 to 25 years old. And this why I hate the world cuz like from 21 to 25, I couldn't smoke a black amount. And every lap, ‘he high’, ‘he this, he that’. Everything I didn't do good, ‘he was high’. Everything I did wrong, ‘he was high’. He was high. He was high. Was high. It's like if I was high, I'd be in jail right now. Real sh*t, for four years. That's why like as soon as I turned 25, I picked that sh*t up(smoking marijuana) and I ain't never put it down again. It's like f*ck that. Y'all going to say I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. And the world never got that.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Why do you think Michael Beasley has been so misunderstood throughout his career? Quinn Cook: I think the players and those who know people in media, people in journalism; coaches, people in the front office… they know. Just roll the ball out. It’s Mike! Kevin. It’s just certain guys that wake up and is just better and everybody. And Mike has been better than everybody his entire career but, in life there’s politics and sometimes you have to handle things a certain way; sometimes if you’re 19-years old getting placed in Miami with millions of dollars when you don’t come from anything so how do you do that, you know what I’m sayin’? So Mike is a walking testimony and at his age now to be where he is and to who he is to basketball, I’m just so proud and happy for him.
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Michael Beasley on Erik Spoelstra: "I used to blame Spo a lot. The older I got, the more I realized like my rookie year was his rookie year. And just as scared as I was of Riles, he was just... probably more because he used to be the film guy. But I come under Frank Martin. I come under David Cox. I come under real 'I’ll put my foot in your ass' coaches. So it could have been Spongebob in that head coach spot. I respected it because it was head coach. I was scared of that guy though."
Michael Beasley when he was fined: “They got fined $20k. I got fined $100k. My shoe deal dropped. My name in the NBA was f***ed. We went to Paris. David Stern came and shook everybody’s hand except mine. I was standing next to Chris Quinn and Mark Blount. He looked over me. I get it—I got one over on them, and they got one over on me. You feel me?”
Michael Cooper: If you had this to do all over again, your career, I mean, and again, you said you were distracted from a lot of things, what would you have eliminated in order to make a better career? Michael Beasley: ‘If I did it all over again, I would have listened to Pat Riley. Pat Riley told me to get a condo, get two bedrooms, one for my mom when she come in town… I went the polar opposite… I got a six-bedroom house, got three dogs, had three, four of my friends staying in… and then from it, that's where all the problems came from. I was bailing people out of jail… my uncle was fighting a RICO… my godfather got nine, ten years… So to me, I was really dealing with problems.
Michael Beasley opened up on what he’d change about his career: “If I could do it all over again, I would have just listened to Pat Riley. Pat told me to get a condo for me and my mom. I got a 6-bedroom house, dogs, homies staying in… that’s where the problems came from.”
Michael Beasley: I used to think tomorrow never comes, right? And it does. It doesn’t, right? Like you never woke up and it was tomorrow. So with that mindset, I’m just not in a rush to get there anymore. I just wish people would understand that you are everything you need, and you have everything you need to walk into tomorrow confident. Whether you think you do or not, God’s got you. And God’s not gonna really bless you until you understand that part. We all think, “God’s got us. I’mma pray. Yeah, I know, I know.” And then you end up not with this, can’t pay that, and you ain’t got nothing but God. And then it’s like, bro, you got to really figure it out. A week goes past, and you say, “God, I figured it out.” Then a year goes past, “God, I figured it out.” And He’s looking at you like, bro—He won’t say a word. He won’t say a word until you’re really ready. And when you’re ready, you stop rushing. I think—I’m not saying I’m ready—but I think I’m becoming ready. I think I’m understanding.
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Fullcourtpress: Michael Beasley calls out Carmelo Anthony 👀 “He copped the *uck out and said I wanna, I wanna, I wanna… we can really do it— no cop outs, throw the *ucking money up.”
Michael Beasley calls out Carmelo Anthony 👀
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) July 30, 2025
“He copped the *uck out and said I wanna, I wanna, I wanna… we can really do it— no cop outs, throw the *ucking money up.”@thebig3 pic.twitter.com/wQsgKsx8PL
Nonetheless, Anthony has nothing but respect for what Beasley is doing in the one on one space and commends him for the job he's been doing exploring this side of the sport. “He really wanna play. He love to play and he love the game. And I think now, you start to see him get thar attention and the respect that he deserves,” Anthony said on the latest episode of his podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment. “I think now having the opportunity, get back out there on the court, showcase to a newer generation a newer game when it come to 1v1, he is that guy.” “I would put my own money up on Beas against people … Beas is one of the most talented players to ever play our game.”
Michael Beasley: My stomach was crying, and tomorrow still came. I was hungry by myself—and tomorrow still came. I don’t like you. I don’t need to like you. I like me. I like me. Because I was there for me. Every… day. Every… dribble. Every DM. And that’s why I don’t like y’all saying my name now—because when I was there, I was in all of y’all’s DMs. All of you. That hurt. But tomorrow came. And I couldn’t let the sun beat me. That’s the part of the narrative I hate—people think I don’t work. People think I’m just cool because I’m light-skinned. Because I got green eyes. But y’all don’t see me. They put a mirror in the jungle—and when the gorilla saw itself, it went crazy. A tiger doesn’t care about his stripes. People think I’m confident. I’m scared just like y’all. I just never told anybody. I’m afraid. I just always been too scared to say it.
Michael Beasley: During all that time, that period, I kept hooping. Why? Because the right answer never cared who said it. So while every day y’all were sitting there telling me I’m the wrong answer, I was telling the kids—look, it’s a thing in my gym. I tell these kids all the time: 'Y’all don’t think I got humility?' I tell them, 'Yo, you want to be Michael Beasley or Kevin Durant?' You understand? They get that. I tell my kids: 'I’m known as one of the best basketball players ever. Do you want to be that—without a job—or do you want to be kicking dudes in the balls and making $40 million a year?' So yeah, I kept hooping. Why? Somebody gonna dribble the ball, right? It’s gonna dribble. The sun’s gonna come up. So… why not me?"