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Heat Central: Michael Beasley says things were never the same after Pat Riley took LeBrons cookies. “Spo and Riley tried to swing their d*cks. I seen it. I’m just watching. Spo and Riley tried to take his cookies and didn’t tell him. I’m pretty sure if they would’ve went to him like a man, it maybe would’ve been a different story. But he personally brings those cookies himself. That’s the part of the story they not telling…. That boy stood up like Thanos… He stood up and yelled… That’s the first time I seen the whole organization get scared. From that point on they tip toed around him. They knew he was out” (Via @ClubShayShay)
Alex B.: Such a sad & F’d up story about Michael Beasley’s time on the Lakers. Multiple deaths in his family at once & nobody was there for him. They laughed at him when he did dumb stuff while grieving (including LeBron). Only guy that tried to help was Josh Hart. “LeBron James and Magic Johnson were laughing, too.” - Michael Beasley
The HEAT Realm: Michael Beasley addresses the rumors of his 1v1s against LeBron James in practice during their time in Miami “The story was told wrong. I used to guard him in practice and I used to 94 foot this n**** just because I wanted to him make him better…one day it was mid season — he was just tired, he wasn’t scared of me, we weren’t playing 1 on 1…I was going to guard him 94 feet — I didn’t give a f*ck about the tired sh*t…so I get down to guard him and Bron yells at the top of his lungs ‘Mario Chalmers is guarding me today’…the reporter that told the story — he’s there all the time…he don’t know Bron tired — all he sees is Bron don’t want Michael Beasley to guard him and that’s the story he ran with…I was depressed so I let the story run.” (via @ClubShayShay)
Michael Beasley addresses the rumors of his 1v1s against LeBron James in practice during their time in Miami👀
— The HEAT Realm (@WadexFlash) April 22, 2026
“The story was told wrong. I used to guard him in practice and I used to 94 foot this n**** just because I wanted to him make him better…one day it was mid season — he… pic.twitter.com/38r90IiMc2
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: People on the outside often think you and Michael Beasley have beef, but the reality is the opposite. What’s the truth there? Lance Stephenson: Michael Beasley? Man, we grew up together. We spent years playing against each other and playing on the same teams. But when you’re playing one-on-one, all that “friends” stuff goes out the window.
Ivica Zubac: It was the third year. I finished my first season strong, played pretty well. Then Magic Johnson came to the team. Before Summer League, they told me I had to be Summer League MVP. If not, they’d be disappointed. I wasn’t MVP. Q. You weren’t? Zubac: No. We won the Summer League. I played well, but not MVP. That team was loaded. The best team in Summer League history. Me, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso, Thomas Bryant was coming off the bench. Seven or eight legit NBA guys. How can you be MVP on that team? Sometimes you can’t even get the ball. We won it all. Summer League ends. The season starts soon. Two weeks before the season, they sign Andrew Bogut. Magic Johnson calls me in. Says I didn’t improve all summer. “You didn’t improve. You won’t play.” Camp hadn’t even started. And he’s telling me I won’t play. I’m thinking, I stayed all summer, didn’t play for the national team. All summer in L.A. with my trainers. Strength coach, skill coach, did everything they wanted. What else could I do? If I didn’t improve, that’s on you. Second season, I barely played at all. Third season starts, they sign JaVale McGee. He’s the starter, no other real center. Michael Beasley plays backup center.
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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.”