What Happened to Malik Beasley? Where He Is Now in 2026

For a decade, Malik Beasley was known as one of the NBA’s most reliable three-point shooters — a sharpshooter who bounced between six teams and, just last season, nearly won Sixth Man of the Year with the Detroit Pistons. Today he’s better known for something else entirely: a federal indictment accusing him of intentionally underperforming in games so associates could cash in on prop bets. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bond as the case moves through court. Here’s what happened, and where things stand now.

01Profile

Beasley comes from a family with deep roots in entertainment as much as sports — his grandfather was the late character actor John Beasley, familiar to millions from “Rudy,” and both of his parents worked in film and TV. But it’s the basketball career, and now the criminal case attached to it, that defines his public story today.

02The Rise: A Sharpshooter in Search of a Home

Florida State to the NBA lottery

Beasley arrived at Florida State as a five-star recruit and left after a single season, becoming the program’s first “one-and-done” player. He averaged 15.6 points and 5.3 rebounds a game, good enough for ACC All-Freshman honors and the second-best freshman scoring average in school history. The Denver Nuggets took him 19th overall in the 2016 draft, betting on his shooting stroke translating quickly to the NBA level.

Bouncing between rosters

It did, eventually, but not always in one place. Beasley spent parts of four seasons in Denver before a 2020 trade sent him to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he signed a four-year, $60 million contract and became a full-time starter. From there his career took him to the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Milwaukee Bucks — a well-traveled path that’s common for streaky three-point specialists whose value rises and falls with their shooting percentage. Along the way he built a reputation as a knockdown shooter capable of scoring in bunches off the bench or as a starter, even if he never quite settled into a long-term home.

A career year in Detroit

That changed, briefly, with the Detroit Pistons. Beasley signed a one-year, $6 million deal in July 2024 and delivered arguably the best season of his career, providing instant offense off the bench and finishing as the runner-up for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award for the 2024–25 season. It was the kind of platform that should have set up a lucrative new contract in free agency. Instead, it became the backdrop for a very different kind of story.

03The Federal Investigation Begins

According to multiple reports, federal authorities began scrutinizing Beasley in the summer of 2025 after a U.S. sportsbook flagged unusual betting interest tied to his individual statistical output — the kind of activity that regulators are trained to watch for. The suspicious activity reportedly traced back to games during the 2023–24 season, when Beasley was a member of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Summer 2025Reports emerge that the U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating Beasley over irregular prop-bet activity tied to his 2023–24 Bucks games.
Summer 2025A reported three-year, $42 million deal with the Pistons is pulled off the table once the investigation becomes public; Detroit's offer shrinks to a fraction of that figure due to salary-cap restrictions.
February 13, 2026With his NBA free agency stalled, Beasley signs with the Cangrejeros de Santurce — the Puerto Rican BSN team co-owned by Bad Bunny — to regain rhythm and playing time.
March 22, 2026Beasley makes his BSN debut against the reigning champion Vaqueros de Bayamón, scoring 21 points with 8 rebounds in a 78–77 win.
May 11, 2026Santurce releases Beasley after a 6–11 start to the season, according to Puerto Rican outlets.
June 29, 2026Beasley is indicted in the Eastern District of New York alongside five others, including former Bucks teammate Ed Davis, on wire fraud conspiracy, bribery in sporting contests, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges.
July 1, 2026Beasley pleads not guilty at arraignment; a magistrate judge releases him on a $100,000 bond, co-signed by his parents.
August 6, 2026A status conference is scheduled as the case proceeds.

The investigation upended what should have been a straightforward free-agency payday. Once word of the probe surfaced, according to Forbes and other outlets, Detroit’s earlier three-year offer evaporated, and by the time free agency opened the Pistons — already carrying new salary commitments to Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert — could only offer a fraction of that money. Rather than sit idle, Beasley took an unconventional route to stay competitive: in February 2026 he signed with the Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico’s BSN league, the team co-owned by Bad Bunny, framing it as a chance “to be seen again.” He debuted with a 21-point game but was released in May after the team’s slow start.

04Inside the Indictment: What Prosecutors Allege

It’s important to be precise here, because Beasley has not been convicted of anything and is presumed innocent. But the allegations themselves are serious and specific, and they’re worth laying out as prosecutors have described them.

Federal prosecutors allege that while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, Beasley agreed with Ed Davis and other co-conspirators to intentionally underperform statistically in at least four games during the 2023–24 season, allowing bettors who knew about the arrangement in advance to profit off prop bets tied to his production. One example cited in the indictment involves a Bucks-Cavaliers game on January 26, 2024, in which Beasley recorded three rebounds — below the betting line — after prosecutors say he exchanged text messages with Davis about the plan. Prosecutors also allege the scheme was connected to Beasley’s own financial pressures; reporting describes him as having accumulated significant gambling losses and separate money disputes, including with a Detroit landlord, a Milwaukee barber, and a Minnesota dentist, that were reportedly cited as part of the government’s financial-motive narrative.

Six people were named in the indictment in total, and the charges — wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, and bribery in sporting contests — carry maximum combined penalties of decades in prison if there are convictions. Beasley is one of several current and former NBA figures, including a coach and other players, swept up in a broader sports-gambling investigation out of the Eastern District of New York that has been expanding since a first wave of arrests roughly a year earlier.

Beasley’s legal team has pushed back forcefully. His attorney Jason Goldman told reporters after the not-guilty plea that Beasley “looks forward to fighting” the charges, adding, “This is only the very beginning of things. An arrest means nothing. An indictment means nothing.” An earlier attorney, Steve Haney, said before arraignment that “an indictment is not proof of guilt or evidence — it is merely a charge of probable cause,” and maintained “Malik’s innocence of all charges” following what he described as an 18-month investigation.

05What He Is Doing Now

Fighting the case, and a stint in Puerto Rico

As of mid-2026, Beasley is a free agent. Earlier in the year he kept himself in game shape with the Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico’s BSN, but that stint ended in May when the team released him after a rough start to its season. On the legal front, he’s out on bond — with his parents as co-signers — and is due back in court for a status conference in August 2026. There’s no clear indication an NBA team will move to sign him while federal charges are pending, and the league itself has separately increased scrutiny of gambling-adjacent conduct across its rosters in the wake of the broader investigation.

Framing the fight publicly

Beasley’s camp has tried to steer the public conversation not just toward his innocence but toward the sports-betting industry itself. His attorney has argued there’s a larger story about legalized gambling operators “profiting billions and billions of dollars and fueling the addiction” that gets lost when individual players are charged. Whether that argument gains traction in court is a separate question from whether it resonates publicly, but it signals how his defense intends to frame the case going forward.

“He’s presumed innocent and that has to mean something still, obviously.” — Jason Goldman, Malik Beasley’s attorney, July 2026

Personal life in flux

The legal battle has landed during an already difficult personal stretch. Beasley’s wife, model Montana Yao, filed for divorce for a second time in March 2025, citing irreconcilable differences, after the couple had previously reconciled from an earlier 2020 filing. The two share two children, a son born in 2019 and a daughter born in 2022. Beasley has not spoken publicly in detail about the marriage’s status since the case became national news.

06Summary

Malik Beasley’s story has taken a sharp turn from where it looked headed just a year ago: a career-best season, a runner-up finish for Sixth Man of the Year, and what appeared to be a lucrative new contract on the horizon. Instead, he’s now a defendant in one of the more serious sports-corruption cases the NBA has faced in years, fighting federal charges that could carry decades in prison if he’s convicted — charges he denies. The case is still in its early stages, with the next court date in August 2026, and under the law he remains innocent unless and until prosecutors prove otherwise.

Malik Beasley in 2026: Quick Facts

Indicted June 29, 2026 in the Eastern District of New York on federal bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy charges.
Pleaded not guilty on July 1, 2026; released on a $100,000 bond co-signed by his parents.
Allegations center on four Milwaukee Bucks games from the 2023–24 season, including a January 26, 2024 game against Cleveland.
An NBA free agent as of mid-2026 after a reported three-year, $42 million Pistons deal fell through once the probe became public; played briefly for Puerto Rico's Cangrejeros de Santurce before being released in May 2026.
Finished runner-up for 2024–25 NBA Sixth Man of the Year with the Detroit Pistons.
Wife Montana Yao filed for divorce a second time in March 2025; the couple share two children.
Next scheduled court date is a status conference on August 6, 2026.

Where the case goes from here — plea deal, trial, or dismissal — will determine whether Beasley ever plays in the NBA again. For now, his career is on pause and his legal team is preparing for what they’ve called a long fight.