Michael Jordan holds up six fingers for each Bulls championship as he addresses the crowd at the Petrillo Music Shell at Grant Park on June 16, 1998, in Chicago (Imago)
The majority of NBA fans are focused on how things stand on the basketball court, but most of them didn’t know that there are NBA players (former and current) that are huge gambling enthusiasts. Even some of the biggest NBA stars couldn’t resist the thrill and excitement that gambling brings.
After difficult seasons, lots of hard work, and dedication, they needed to let off steam and unwind and that’s why they chose to gamble. Since money was not the problem for the NBA players, some of them spent tremendous amounts of money on gambling, measured in millions!
But it wasn’t easy for those NBA superstars to gamble like regular people since they were being followed by paparazzi and fans no matter where they went. Fortunately, that’s not a concern now since they can gamble comfortably by using online casinos, just like anybody else.
Although online casinos cannot offer the same experience as brick-and-mortar casinos, it’s as close as you can get to genuine gambling, especially if playing in live casinos. If you too are interested in online gambling, head out to the Casino Bros website where you’ll find a wide variety of the top-rated gambling platforms.
And if you are still curious about which players are we talking about, keep reading to find out who are the 5 NBA stars who gamble or used to gamble.
One of the most acclaimed NBA player in history and Chicago Bulls champion, Michael Jordan was competitive as a basketball player but equally competitive as a gambling enthusiast. His favorite location for gambling was Atlantic City, and one of his favorite games is poker.
On top of that, MJ was competing with his golf friends and playing high-stakes games only. Some say that once he had lost over 1 million dollars in one single golf game!
Being a close friend to Michael Jordan allowed Sir Charles to share the same passion for gambling with him. Charles Barkley is a regular guest of renowned casinos in Vegas, where he’s playing for a significant sum of money. Back in 2006 he lost nearly 10 million dollars to Vegas casinos and got sued by one casino for failing to pay his losses which were about 400k dollars. Nowadays, he still tours luxurious casinos and gambles responsibly, since he learned a lesson from his past mistakes.
One of the NBA living icons, Allen Iverson was part of the All-star games 11 times! But because of his huge passion for gambling, the professional sport had to suffer and this eventually lead him to problems with alcohol and gambling, and even though his net worth was over 200 million dollars, his reckless behavior lead him to financial issues as well. He also got banned from multiple casinos for his inadequate behavior. Some of the casino games he was the most enthusiastic about were poker and blackjack.
Another famous NBA legend who played for LA Lakers, Smith is also famous for gambling. He once got robbed by a burglar, when his briefcase with over 15k dollars in cash meant for gambling, was stolen. It wasn’t a big loss for him, but having that much cash and carrying it around is not unusual when you are a multi-millionaire celebrity. Just like players we mentioned earlier, Smith was a recurring visitor to Vegas and Atlantic City casinos where he played blackjack and poker.
Another NBA star and a huge gambling fanatic, Charles Oakley used to hit Vegas casinos very frequently where he played various games. He once got caught cheating, when he pulled back some of his chips after finding out that he was going to lose and this lead him to be banned from the casino. Back in 2000, he got into a fight with Tyrone Hill (Philadelphia Sixer) and threw basketballs at him before a match! When explaining to the press why he did that, he said that Hill was supposed to pay him 54 000 dollars after losing a game of dice. Oakley was suspended and fined 10 000 dollars by NBA, but he got his money back after some time.