Pat McAfee under fire for betting on LeBron James

Pat McAfee is dealing with criticism from sports activities writer Jeff Pearlman after publicly revealing on his Friday present that he positioned a wager on LeBron James’ next team utilizing a complicated heads-up from ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania.

The state of affairs arose after news broke that James was signing with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8 million contract with a participant choice in Year 2.

“We were told by Shams, ‘You’re gonna want me on the show today,'” McAfee said. “So it’s like, OK, decision’s being made. I just hammered top four. He was at +700.”

McAfee added, “I do not know, OK, if it even worked,” before transferring on to introduce Charania on the program.

There was no indication Charania had told McAfee particularly that James was headed to the 76ers, only that a heads-up about coming on the present prompted McAfee’s read that a choice was imminent.

Pearlman responded to the alternate in a video posted to Instagram and TikTok, arguing the second illustrated an erosion of journalistic requirements at ESPN as the network has leaned additional into sports activities betting partnerships.

“ESPN just laid off a bunch of people, real reporters, real journalists, people who take this seriously,” Pearlman said. “And we’re listening to Shams, who’s their NBA insider, on the show with the guy talking about how he used information that he received on his show from people involved with his show to gamble on where LeBron James is going. And this is just fine in modern media.”

Pearlman went additional, criticizing what he described as ESPN’s shift away from pure journalism towards a gambling-focused enterprise mannequin.

“Any remaining pretense that ESPN is anything more than a moneymaking entity is bulls—,” Pearlman said. “They’re not a journalistic entity anymore. They have relations with all the places they cover. They run a sportsbook, so they’re a gambling outlet now.”

He particularly criticized the dynamic between McAfee and Charania on air, saying, “You have the NBA insider just nodding along and going, ‘Ha ha ha, he he he, oh yeah this is great, here’s the information I’m gonna give you.’ It is f—ing sick, seriously. It’s disgusting and disturbing.”

James will reportedly take a considerable pay reduce to affix a 76ers roster that now contains Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey.