As one of ESPN’s most popular personalities, Pat McAfee regularly rubs shoulders with prominent sports figures, including NBA insider Shams Charania. Having worked together for multiple years, it’s only natural for the two to develop a friendly connection.
Some might even suggest that McAfee’s job gives him unique access to insider information. Thus, many questioned whether he should have been betting on factors such as which team LeBron James would sign with before it was revealed he was joining the Philadelphia 76ers.
Pat McAfee Ripped for Betting on LeBron James’ Free Agency Decision
McAfee may have been in a position to profit from information gathered before James’ decision became public. The question is, did he use that potential intel to place a sports wager?
Published sports author Jeff Pearlman believes he’s discovered proof of McAfee using information he’s gotten from Charania to bet on James’ next team. He revealed his beliefs on Instagram.
“Seriously, @espn @patmcafeeshow @shams … what are we doing here?” Pearlman asked in his Instagram post. “And can you maybe fight a little hard harder to save sports and integrity?”
“So I had a follower reach out to me today,” Pearlman said. “He said ‘Did you hear Shams on the Pat McAfee Show this morning, and how they were talking about LeBron and the gambling line.”
Then, Pearlman plays a clip from McAfee listing out the odds of James joining the 76ers.
“This morning. Cuz we were told by Shams, ‘You’re going to want me on the show today.’ So it’s like okay. The decision’s being made,” McAfee said. “I just hammered the top four. He was at +700. When you say, needle-mover, groundbreaker, I mean you’re talking about a guy who’s been doing it since he’s a teen.”
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Pearlman then continued his rant and said,
“This is crazy. ESPN just laid off a bunch of people, real reporters, real journalists, people who take this seriously.”
“Shams, who’s their insider, the NBA insider, on the show, with the guy talking about how he used information that he received on his show from people involved with the show to gamble on where LeBron James is going. And this is just fine in modern media.”
The author then focused his attention away from McAfee and to the bigger picture: that gambling in sports, in his mind, is “poisonous.”
“It is so poisonous, gambling in sports,” Pearlman continued. “It is crazy to me that ESPN keeps firing people, shedding salary, cutting this, cutting that. But the gambling thing, they are all in on it.”
“Any remaining pretense that ESPN is anything anymore but a money-making entity is BS. They’re not a journalistic entity anymore. They have relations with all the places they cover. They run a sportsbook. So they are a gambling outlet now.”
Concluding his scathing criticism, Pearlman took a few more shots at ESPN, finishing with a jab at McAfee.
“They have guys like Pat McAfee, not just talking about gambling, not just talking about lines, but taking information he’s receiving and then gambling on it,” Pearlman added.
“Then you have an NBA insider just nodding along, going ‘haha heehee here’s the information I’m going to give you’. It is [expletive] sick. Seriously, it’s disgusting, and it’s disturbing. Where are the people who cared? What happened in society? I honestly don’t get it. It’s such a sickness. Pat McAfee, seriously, you suck, man.”
ESPN may be interested in Pearlman’s post, and one can’t imagine they’d be thrilled with the idea of anyone employed by the sports network taking advantage of their position.
Could McAfee face discipline from the network? It’s certainly possible. Though he should likely be more worried about potentially facing any legal trouble.
