Giannis should be ashamed

Cutting a deal with a major prediction market platform after playing coy with a trade request is beneath him and will sully his legacy. He should backtrack and the NBA should step in to prevent this from happening again.

Good morning. The Seattle Seahawks and Bad Bunny are equally Super Bowl champions. Let's basketball.

On Friday, the day after the NBA trade deadline, Giannis Antetokounmpo announced that he had become a shareholder with Kalshi, one of the most popular prediction markets. Prediction markets, if you're unfamiliar, are sites where you can gamble on ... everything: Federal Reserve appointments, election results, whether foreign governments will be toppled by the United States, celebrity attendance at the Super Bowl and, uh, whether someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to be traded.

Since December, $23 million was bet on whether Giannis would be traded on Kalshi alone. Another $4 million was bet on the matter on Polymarket, the other big prediction market platform. (And yes, it appears that Complex, the media company, sponsored one of the prediction markets. Cute.)

Needless to say, active athletes getting involved in any gambling platforms is dangerous and gross when sports leagues are only as strong as their integrity. Giannis torturing Bucks fans with his wishy-washy trade sentiments while actively working on a deal with a major prediction market platform is pretty disgusting, even if Antetokounmpo is legitimately torn about his future. This deal had to be months in the making. All the while, Kalshi was earning transaction fees on all that action, action that would be suspended if at any point in December, January or early February Giannis simply said "don't trade me" or "trade me before the deadline."