Former NBA All-Star Metta World Peace — formerly known as Ron Artest — did an interview with Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday, and was asked what he thinks about sports betting being legalized.
It led to World Peace telling a story about how he was offered $35,000 in college to fix basketball games while playing at St. John’s where he starred from 1997-99.
World Peace said, “That’s the problem I have with betting, because these guys who are betting, they’re bullies.”
.@MettaWorldPeace says he was offered $35,000 💸 to fix games in college and because of that he’s not a fan of the new ruling to make sports betting legal. pic.twitter.com/G6FkMZg9fT
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 16, 2018
“I’ve been approached in college. I got approached a couple times to throw games. The one interesting time, they come to me in my neighborhood and say, ‘Hey, you know, I got $35,000 for you.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, that’s cool. I’ll take $35,000.’ They said, ‘We need you to throw a game.’ I said, that’s when I’m like, ‘You asshole.’ But it crossed my mind: $35,000 to throw a game? Not bad. But, you know, that’s the problem. When you don’t have no money, they find these kids that don’t have money and attack them. But it’s like, what if I was some kid that was a little scared? ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’
That’s the problem I have with betting, because these guys who are betting, they’re bullies. Some of them are bullies. They’ll force a kid into a situation, and then when the kid’s trying to go to the NBA, they hold it against the kid.”
These kind of stories from athletes are always crazy to hear, but hardly surprising at the same time. The reality is that the movie Blue Chips is much more realistic than we want to believe.
