The last edition of the European men’s basketball championship has just ended with the well-deserved 88 to 76 victory of Spain over France. The triumph of the Red Furies bears the signature of Sergio Scariolo, the coach from Brescia who, thanks to this triumph, has won 4 continental titles (on a par with USSR coach Stepan Spandarjan).
Too bad for Pozzecco’s Italy, they flew to the quarter-finals after eliminating Jokic’s Serbia against all odds. Despite the leveling match with France, it was stopped in the quarter-finals, losing the opportunity to play the semi-final against Poland, which would have been the eventual final with the Iberians.
The floor of EuroBasket 2022 was the stage for a series of entertaining and spectacular matches. The actions of the game have had as protagonists champions accustomed to the limelight inside and outside the field. There are many, in fact, players who besides sport cultivate other hobbies and interests. One of these, common to many, is gambling.
5 basketball players who like gambling
It is not a case that basket players from the past and present have had or have the passion for the game. Who is used to winning in the field loves winning even in real life. Here, then, is the story of the most famous basketball players who like to have fun and risk with casino games.
Michael Jordan
How to start the list of basketball players with a passion for gambling if not with the most brilliant NBA star of all time. Michael Jordan’s favorite pastimes include craps, roulette, poker and other gambling games to play online with real money. The former star of the Chicago Bulls was even immortalized playing gambling the night before an Eastern Conference final against the New York Knicks. From his side, MJ has never hidden his weakness for terrestrial and virtual games. Si vocifera perfino che abbia investito milioni di dollari – non certo bruscolini – tra i online casino y physical casino di Atlanta.
JR Smith
Another big star basketball player with a great passion for poker, slot machines, blackjack and other board games in general is JR Smith, one of the most legendary icons of the NBA. The former guard of the Knicks (and, subsequently, of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers) with an eccentric character has been an idol of NBA fans for years. It has to be said that JR is also a symbol of conscious gambling: to avoid unnecessary risks, his strategy consists in setting aside a figure intended exclusively for gambling. Even if he were to lose it all, that would not send him into financial trouble.
Charles Barkley
Former basketball player and NBA star of the Nineties, Charles Barkley has always had the ball of the game, with a particular preference for blackjack. A close friend of Michael Jordan, he was a regular frequenter of Las Vegas casinos. Who, if he says, abbrevi speso enormi somme tra i tavoli verdi. In total, it is about 10 million dollars, of which 2.5 million were played in just 6 hours. On the occasion of a blackjack game, he got to bet the entire winnings from a lottery – another of his great passions – that made him pocket less than 700 thousand dollars.
Shawn Marion
Also known by the pseudonym “The Matrix” thanks to the marked ability to remain suspended for a long time, Shawn Dwayne Marion has dominated the American basketball scene for a large part of the Nineties. The former NBA champion with Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks loves gambling so much that he created a foundation – the Shawn Marion Trust Foundation – through which he organizes poker tournaments and other casino games that have become a legend among fans of the genere, and cui ricavati vengono devoluti in beneficenza.
Antoine Walker
Great talent of the Boston Celtics and NBA champion in the 2005/06 season with the Miami Heat, Antoine Walker never hid his weakness for the green table. During a radio interview, the former Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves player said that he and Michael Jordan had played a card game that lasted for 36 straight hours (in which both of them ended up losing 180 thousand dollars in total). Circumstance that forced the world-wide parquet myth to postpone the press conference in which he would have announced his return to the NBA after his first retirement.
Conclusion
Sports and gambling are often closely linked. Gambling’s popularity has grown significantly with the advent of online casinos, which have attracted and passionate champions of various disciplines, including basketball. Even Michael Jordan, the most famous NBA star of all time, is in love with gambling in all its variants and has given in to the fun and adrenaline transmitted by the green tables.
