Crooked Politicians & Mafia Athletes Exposed 🚨💰🔥

Bruce Anthony: Crooked politicians, the mafia. And scammy athletes. We gonna get into it. Let's get it.

Bruce Anthony: Welcome. First

Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives 🎙️🔥

Bruce Anthony: of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony. Here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation to follow us wherever you get your audio podcast. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcast, YouTube exclusive content, and our YouTube membership rate review.

Like, comment, share, share with your friends, share with your family. Hell even share with your enemies. On today's episode,

Presidential Pardons, Gambling Rings & Double-Crosses 🏛️🎰

Bruce Anthony: we're gonna be talking about Trump being crooked, NBA players working with the mafia, and am I jerk? Reddit posts That I think is pretty interesting that you will probably like, but that's enough of the intro.[00:01:00]

Let's get to the show.

Bruce Anthony: You know, I talk a lot about our current commander in chief, the current president of the United States being crooked and. I don't think this is a reach. He's got a history of doing crooked business deals. Why would we think that he would get in office and not do crooked business deals? His first, his first run as president, his daughter and son-in-law came out of it with a $2 billion deal with the Saudis.

Trump has gotten into crypto and. Nefarious things are going on and he is quick to play dumb. I don't think he's dumb in these scenarios. He's quick to play dumb, like I don't know what's going on. My family is running the business. All the while he is [00:02:00] tearing down the east wing to build a ballroom that nobody asked for.

The government is shut down. People are starting to feel the pinch. Hamburger helper is rising in sales now. Lemme tell you something about a hamburger helper. My family grew up on Hamburger Helper and I don't know, it was probably about four or five years ago. My mom was just talk. We were just chit-chatting and we was talking about nutrition and eating right and things of that nature.

I was helping her with a nutrition and out of the blue she says, I just hate the fact that I just used to feed you guys a hamburger. Healthier. It was so unhealthy for you. Now, I was like, mom, we didn't have a whole lot of money and Hamburger helper. Was able to nourish us, right? Like we didn't have a lot of money.

My parents had me when they were still in college, right? Like I grew up with, my parents didn't have a lot of money. Now they got some bread, but they didn't when we were growing up, so we ate hamburger and helper, rice andoni and things of that nature. Why? Because [00:03:00] times were tough. Hamburger helper sales are going up right now because times are tough, right?

Hamburger Helper Sales Rise: America's Struggle 🍔📈😔

Bruce Anthony: People aren't working. I, if they are working, they're not being paid. A living wage. Inflation is crazy. I know inflation is crazy because of certain things that I buy now. I'm never gonna stop buying eggs. So it doesn't matter what cost they go up to. I need to buy eggs For me, I've seen, because I don't have a car, I don't drive.

I take Ubers everywhere. I've seen the increase in my Gatorade Zeros, and I know that sounds crazy to you guys, but it used to be that I could go to my local grocery store, grocery store and get four Gatorade Zeros for $5. Then it started being two for $5. Then it would go to three to $5, and then it would go.

One for $3. I'm not playing with you. And I know every time it's a crap [00:04:00] shoot. Every time I go to the grocery store, what the Gatorade Zeros are gonna be. Now I'm not hurting financially. I do okay for myself. I gotta get life, man. But there are people out here that are struggling all the while. This president is giving $40 billion to Argentina while Asur bean farmers here in the United States are being.

Cut out of the market because the major buyer purchaser of American soybeans are China. But because we got this tariff war going on with China, China has decided to go to other countries to buy their soybeans. So American farmers can't get rid of the soybeans. The farmers that voted for Trump are now regretting their vote.

Because now their lives are being affected. Now I see a lot of people out there celebrating and gluten that these people are going through a tough time. I'm not gluten. I'm not [00:05:00] gluten. I will say you reap what you sell, what you put out there in the world you will receive. You put out there hatred and bigot and bigotry.

Your life is gonna be pretty miserable. You're not gonna be happy and bad things are gonna happen to you. You put out kindness and love. Things will come back to you. I, I truly, truly believe that people say, well, I don't believe in karma. 'cause what about the president? You don't worry. He gonna get his, you, you don't know what he's dealing with in his personal life.

He could be, he could have a small pp and trust me. I know men with small PPEs and they're really upset in life. I mean, they, I have small hands and I hate it. Everything else on me is gigantic. I, I'm, what I mean is I'm a, I'm a big guy. I'm six four long arms, big feet, you know, big chest. I also got a big booty that I'm trying to get rid of, but it is what it is, right?

And I got these BK snacker hands, right? You're gonna find the flaw. And just be [00:06:00] like, damn, I wish my hands were bigger. My hands ain't big. Right? I got small hands, small hands, running the family. I couldn't be in the wide receiver. That's the reason why I was a quarterback, you know? So when we talk about karma, he could have karma, he could have a small ppe.

I, he probably can't even see his PPE as big as his stomach is anyway. So I mean, that in and of itself would be, you know, a pretty horrific experience. It's never truly been loved. I mean, that sucks. Like who wouldn't wanna truly be loved? I. Am loved and have been loved. It's one of the greatest experiences that you can have, and it doesn't matter if it's family, love, friend love, romantic love.

Being loved is fantastic, being admired and all that's great. Not false admiration, but like real admiration. That's cool to live your existence. Not, and, and maybe he's aware of it. Maybe he isn't aware of it and, and not have anything real that's living in your own personal hell. [00:07:00] But he still got 300 million to build this ballroom and tear down the east wing of the White House, but that's just part of his corruption.

He just pardoned an individual. That has direct ties to he and his family, the Trump family. Financially. I'm gonna talk about two pardons because I believe that they are connected to an overall. Money scheme. Okay, so Donald Trump recently pardoned two individuals associated with cryptocurrency exchanges.

Bitcoin Pardons: Trump's Crypto Corruption Scheme 🪙🤝😱

Bruce Anthony: The first was Arthur Hayes, a co-founder of BitMEX Exchange, who pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering regulations. The second is child Ping Zow. The founder of Ance Exchange who was convicted of money laundering. These partners have drawn attention due to the nature of offenses and individual positions within the crypto industry.

If you are been paying [00:08:00] attention to anything as far as Donald Trump is concerned, you know, he is big in the crypto. He had that crypto coin or Bitcoin or Trump coin or whatever like that, that people. Could, could have lunch with him, right? If they bought the coin or put in money in the coin. Look, I don't, I am a novice when it comes to Bitcoin.

Now I have tried to do a little bit of it, and I call it funny money, like I don't believe it's real, and I believe that it's a scam. I believe that it is used financially for nefarious reasons, which it has the reason why these exchanges. Were charged is because they weren't doing proper tabs on illegal money laundering.

And when we talk about the people that were laundering money through these exchanges, through Bitcoin, we talk about terrorists, we talk about child predators and, and people [00:09:00] soliciting child. Videos, you know what I'm talking about? Things of that nature. Black market buys, things of that nature, right?

Like this is a, a real way to hide money. Scammers. I was just reading something. I was just watching something a couple of days ago. Scammers have will call older people, right? This has always been a scam, calling older people, trying to build them outta their money. And there are these Bitcoin like cash machines.

They're like ATMs that you can throw cash in to get Bitcoin and scammers are scamming people to go withdraw money outta their bank, throw it in these machines. It is routed through a bunch of different terminals. Next thing you know, these people's cash is gone and it's in the some scammer's pocket, and these Bitcoin exchanges are not regulating themselves.

And, and some got busted paid significant fines. [00:10:00] Some people even serve jail time. So what's Arthur Hayes and why did he get a, uh, a pardon? So Arthur Hayes, alongside other Bitm Mix co-founders were convicted in 2022 for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement anti-money laundering and know your customer protocols on.

Bit mix platform. Hayes was sentenced to probation and home confinement at the Bit Mix and its leadership admitted wrongdoing and paid heavy fines. In March of 2025, president Trump issued a full pardon in Hayes and his co-founders framing the prosecution as politically motivated, motivated, and affirming the belief that the charges were based on outdated laws.

The pardon was widely celebrated within the crypto community as a signal of Trump support. For the industry. Now, maybe you guys will remember I jumped all on Snoop 'cause he was in this crypto thing. He performed when Snoop was inaugurating and all that type of stuff. Crypto is a big thing. A lot of [00:11:00] bros are doing crypto right?

Money Laundering Networks Funding Terrorists 💰🌍⚠️

Bruce Anthony: A lot of bros, but women as well. But a lot of bros. A doing crypto. These people admitted wrongdoing. It wasn't malicious prosecution, it wasn't politically motivated prosecution. It is a way to shut down money laundering. Now this administration are, is blowing out boats coming from Venezuela because they say it's drug trafficking, so they'll blow out boats in the ocean without any evidence.

They're literally breaking the law without any evidence. These people are actually trafficking drugs that there are actually drugs on this boat. Something that is literally a crime. They're committing a literal crime, but yet they're saying that things are politically motivated when they're trying to stop these crypto exchanges from not regulating their exchanges to the point where money launderers [00:12:00] are going on the exchanges.

And actually that's how drug dealers are finance and stuff. Drug dealers are running Bitcoin and money laundering through all these Bitcoin exchanges. So instead of looking at the overall problem and saying, look, if we're gonna attack drugs in this country, let's try to stop the flow of drugs here. I'm, let's try and stop them being able to make money off of selling drugs and transfer money and launder their money and clean their money because it benefits the Trump organization.

It's politically motivated. That this, that Arthur was okay. Right? This next one, even worse. So James Ping Z uh, got a pardon? He was convicted in 2023. And by the way, I might be saying that name right. I might not be, y'all know how I am with names. Deal with it. Okay. He was convicted in 2023 for money laundering violations involving involving s, which admitted to [00:13:00] failing to prevent to use by criminals.

So once again, money laundering criminals being able to money launder through this exchange. These criminals, including terrorist and child exploitation networks, some of the terrorist organizations that have used this particular exchange. Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Taliban.

It. Okay. So how is that politically motivated by making this exchange have stronger regulations so that these terrorist organizations can't money launder the whole shutdown, the border campaign is to stop the flow of drugs and stop child exploitative networks. That's what they're saying, right? The whole shut down the border, build the wall, all of that stuff.[00:14:00]

You have a money laundering network that's omitted wrongdoing, but yet you give it a pardon? But why? Why did he give these people a pardon? Well, let's go back to Zal. Zal served a short prison

Trump's Family Profits While America Burns 🔥💵👨‍👩‍👦

Bruce Anthony: sentence and his company paid millions, billions of dollars in penalties. But just this month, October, 2025, Trump pardoned him.

The administration and Zal both pointed to perceived overreach from the previous administration, Biden's administration regulators in prosecuting crypto figures. Here's where the problem comes. Because Zow is deeply involved in business arrangements that benefit the Trump family. Zow and BI and Ance had supported the World.

Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture launched by Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Jr. Their arrangement promised sizable [00:15:00] financial gains for the Trump family and their associates. Z's lobbying efforts for Pardon involved hiring lawyers and lobbyists linked closely to Trump and Bain's active role in supporting the Trump family.

Crypto initiatives seems to coincide with the decision to grant clemency. Let me paint a clearer picture for you. Dude is, did a little thing. He did him a little stretch. He did him a little stretch, but he's out right now. But he, in his company. Are working with the Trump's cryptocurrency venture, right?

So they're bringing in money to the Trumps and to sweeten the deal, they're lobbying Trump. And they're lobbying Trump with Tru, with lawyers and lobbyists that are closely linked to Trump. So not only what, what do you do when you hire a lobbyist? You pay them. So they're paying [00:16:00] lawyers and lobbyists that are close to Trump to talk to Trump to get this guy cleared and give him clemency all the while.

He is also on the other side. Bankrolling Donald Jr. And Eric Trump's cryptocurrency venture.

I I, this is not, this is not some great scheme. This is an a l Luther plan scheme. This is out in the open. It's not even hidden. And what's funny. As Trump was asked about this. Pardon? And he was like, I don't know the guy. I don't know that I've actually ever met him, but some people close to me have told me some good things about about it.

The Pardon Scandal: Criminals Walk Free 🚪⚖️😤

Bruce Anthony: Said that he was treated unfairly and I granted a pardon? I've been granting a lot of pardons lately. He has. He's been granting a lot of pardons to criminals and I guess, okay, that's who you grant pardons to, people that were convicted in crimes. So, Bruce, don't [00:17:00] double talk. What I'm trying to say is. Is that the criminals that he's pardoned weren't wrongly convicted.

Weren't persecuted. They were January 6th people who stormed the capital and got what they was coming. And cryptocurrency, capitalists, owners, what have you that are not monitoring their exchange properly, that's allowing. Terrorist organizations, drug cartels, child exploited networks to launder money. And the reason why they'll turn a blind eye is because they charge a fee for every time.

Some mon, some Bitcoin exchange. On exchange. On their exchange. Y'all don't see how this is crooked. Y'all don't see how this isn't right. The President is lying his pockets [00:18:00] with money while the American people are suffering. The Press Secretary just announced two days ago. The most important thing on the President's mind right now is this ballroom.

Nevermind the fact that the country is burning, people are starving, people are die dying, and this man is more worried. About lining his pockets. I don't ride him for no reason. I ride him 'cause he's a crooked asshole.

Bruce Anthony: Just so you know that I don't attack people solely because I dislike 'em. I am about to attack people that I actually like. Lemme tell you a little story. It's 1994. I'm a freshman in high school. I'm watching Scholastic Sports America, [00:19:00] and they are talking about the 10 best high school seniors in the country.

And it's a who's, who's list of NBA players. Kevin Garnet was first on the list. Then there was Stefan Marberry, my personal favorite, Ron Mercer, Vince Carter, Antoine Jameson, Jelani McCoy. Just naming just a few players that went to the NBA. But there was one player that had a little special feature, and his name was Chauncey Billups.

He was a point guard, much like I was. He was about 6 3, 6 2 at that time. Much like I was, he wasn't extremely athletic. He was just a fundamentally sound player and he was kind of strong just like I was. I loved this dude. I loved his game. I tried to mimic his game. He said something and [00:20:00] I'll never forget it.

They had the, the. Theme song in the background, and he said, maybe one day you'll see me playing in the NBA. The NBA. You know how they do the little repeat thing? Yeah. And they're showing his highlights. And I used to replay that in my head my freshman year. That scene in my head before the games to get into mental space to go out there and play basketball because that's how much I revered this person.

He went on to play at the University of Colorado and balled out so much so that he ended up being the third pick in the 1997 NBA draft. He was selected by the Boston Celtics. He bounced around a few teams. Eventually he found the right team, became an all star for the Detroit Pistons, won an NBA championship by beating Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, and he's a Hall of Famer.

So [00:21:00] cerebral was his basketball player that of course he would enter in and be a head coach. And he did. He started from the bottom and worked his way up. And eventually he got a head coaching job to coach the Portland Trailblazers. Now, the Portland Trailblazers were in a rebuild mode, so that means they were purposely tanking to get high draft picks in order to rebuild their team.

Chauncey Billups: From Hall of Fame to Crime 🏆➡️⚖️

Bruce Anthony: Over a set number of years, Chauncey Billups understood this took the job anyway. Now, why do I tell you all this? I tell you all this to explain to you. This is somebody that I looked up to, I mean, 30 years ago, but I looked up to. That I followed their career that I admired, and that everybody in the NBA said, good dude.

Stand up, dude. Now I attacked the former president who I don't like. Now I'm about to attack the person that I do like and why am I attacking him? It's not [00:22:00] just him, it's another player. But there was an NBA betting scandal, and it was announced this week as one of the largest corruption cases in recent league history involving both illegal sports betting and mafia linked poker schemes.

That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, this scandal is not just. Illegal sports betting. Four outta five families in New York is involved in this corruption. That includes NBA players, four to five families. Which four? The eses, the Bonanos, the Geneve, the ga, the Gambinos. The only ones that's not is the Colombos, and maybe they'll come later.

So either they missed the boat or they was just smoother than what? The other families where and did get caught. But this is a case of not only NBA basketball players, but the [00:23:00] American Mafia. This is some real Godfather type stuff. So Miami Heat Guard, Terry Rose, er, and Portland Trailblazers, head coach and Hall of Famer.

He's a Hall of Famer, Chauncey Billups and former NBA player, Damon Jones. Are the most prominent sports figures charged this week? The FBI and New York Police also indicated Mafia Associates from the four ma from four of the major crime families and several other NBA players, coaches and poker organizers.

34 players. 34 people in total. So what are the charges? RO and other NBA athletes allegedly shared inside information about injuries and game plans to help associates make profitable bets. For one game in March, 2023, Ross reportedly told a friend he would play only a few minutes because of an injury.

Then left the game early, helping some win over $200,000 in bets [00:24:00] on his stats. Billups, my man, Chauncey Billups once again, hall of Famer is accused of running an illegal poker operation that attracted athletes and crime figures. Players were reportedly cheated out of millions using high tech devices such as marked contact lenses, x-ray, tabletops, and specially designed playing cards.

Some NBA players have been accused of faking injuries to manipulate betting outcomes and practice a practice. Federal prosecutors call one of the most audacious sports corruption schemes since online sports betting was legalized. I'm gonna get into how they did, how the feds did the case, but let's get into what, what was actually done here.

Inside the $200K Betting Scam That Shocked the NBA 💸📊😳

Bruce Anthony: Let's focus on Terry Er and Chauncey Bells has a piece in two of these cases, 'cause they're separate things, right? [00:25:00] One is manipulating online sports betting. That's one part of this scandal. The other part of this scandal are these poker games. Let's focus in on the online sporting stuff. So the online sporting stuff.

Basically about spreads and prop bets. I'm not sugarcoating this, but I've been watching some news organizations and listening to some podcasts and some talking heads talking about how people think the NBA is corrupt as far as wins and losses. That's ridiculous. Okay. The NBA is not fixing games for wins and losses except for the 2003 Western Conference finals when the Sacramento Kings was cheated outta Game six by a Los Angeles Lakers.

But that was Tim Donnay. Uh uh, a referee [00:26:00] who was proven to have ties to the mafia and was fixing games, but by and large, NBA games. Are not being fixed as far as wins or losses. It's too tough to fix. You would have to have multiple people involved in actually fixing a game for wins and losses. There's too many players on the court.

There's 10 players on the court. You'd have to have three or four players on a given team to throw a game, right, to purposely throw a game because one player can make a difference in, in NBA. One player can make a difference kind of in baseball, like if it's a pitcher or something like that, it becomes a lot tougher to fix games in football because there's so many different players.

So we're not talking about wins and losses. We're talking about spreads. Say the Los Angeles Lakers are playing the Boston Celtics, the the spread is five, meaning that the Lakers are [00:27:00] supposed to win by five or more. You either gonna cover that spread. Or bet the under meaning that they will only win by 4, 3, 2, 1, or lose, right?

This is what we're talking about. These are the manipulations, and then saying that, you know, certain players are gonna play, certain players are not gonna play. This is information that's been readily, kind of like given out since the beginning of sports and sports betting. The problem was is that it's kind of public now, but it's always kind of been a thing, Hey, a guy's gonna play or not gonna play, that's going to affect the line.

That's going to affect the spread. So it's bad. Don't get me wrong. It's bad, but it's not a complete corruption of the entire NBA, right? This, that's not what this is. Like. Our sports leagues are our sports leagues. These guys wanna win. The reason why they're getting caught up in these [00:28:00] gambling things is because they have a comp, a competition, addiction.

They need higher stakes. That's what it is. Is it a addiction to gambling? In some cases, yeah, but these people, there's no NBA player out there. Terry Ger was making $26 million a year. And he's not an all-star like he was making $26 million a year. A non all-star can make $26 million year. I don't even know if he was a guaranteed bonafide starter.

Marked Cards & X-Ray Tables: The Poker Conspiracy 🃏👁️🎲

Bruce Anthony: Every game, make it $26 million a year. These people aren't in a situation where it was 25 years ago where players were making maybe a million dollars a year where you could literally go broke. I mean, you can go broke for $26 million a year. It's still just one year. You got a four or five year deal, 26, you gonna make another 26 next year.

Granted, you might only be taking 12 million home after taxes and, and agent fees [00:29:00] and all that stuff, but $12 million like these people aren't going broke. It's not about they need the money. It's about a competition addiction. That's separate. I'm talking about the online sports betting. Now, this poker thing that Chauncey Billups got wrapped into, 'cause Chauncey was involved with leaking information about players that were gonna play because they were injured or time restrictions or things of that nature.

That's bad. That's really bad for a head coach to be doing that. Now, was he manipulating playing time? To make sure bets were covered. I don't know. And it don't look good for him. But on the flip side, you got him acting like the, acting like the face of a poker game to draw in attention because when you have celebrities, you have entertainers, you have sports athletes.

People want to play with those people. So people will come regular, average date, average Joe that got some bread going to [00:30:00] come to play in these poker games. But these people are called fish because it's literally just taking their money. They're fish, they're coming to these games to get cheated and Chante, bill was involved with that.

With four to five families, which is crazy. Alright, let's get into the, how the authorities uncovered this scandal. So the NBA, uh, began an investigation into rozi going all the way back to 2023 after unusual betting activity flagged by sports books around individual. Player props, but cleared them at the time.

You know why they cleared them at the time? 'cause they're not the FBI, they don't have resources to tap phones to do any of that stuff. All they could do is do their own independent investigation. So what happened was Terry Rosser was like, yo, I'm gonna fake this injury. I ain't gonna play these minutes.

I'm not gonna hit these stats. Bet the under on all of these stats. We gonna make money. Now they went too far. 'cause they made, they made $200,000 on a couple of them [00:31:00] games. They should have spread it out. It wouldn't have brought attention. But sports books understand algorithms, right? They're the first people to understand analytics and algorithms.

Okay. They know what the lines are going to be, how much they've been doing this for decades. They know what it is. Federal authorities worked with the NBA on both the betting and poker investigations, which ran for more than two years and used wiretaps and betting market civilian. The NBA placed roser and bull on administrative leave immediately after their arrest.

Tiago Splinter was named the interim head coach for the Portland Trailblazers. Commissioner Adam Silver called himself deeply disturbed and said, preserving game integrity remains top priority. Admitting the scandal has shaken the confidence in NBA competition. Congress has requested an official briefing from Silver by the end of October to discuss how League protects players and [00:32:00] maintains transparency around betting risk.

So what's next? Federal investigators suggest more names could surface as the FBI continues to question players and coaches and associates while no player or coach has been convicted yet. This is a developing story and both ER and Billups deny any wrongdoing. The NBA has emphasized this cooperation with law enforcement and review of all updated league rules about gambling as the new season begins.

Look at.

GA gambling is, look, I, I'm not typically, I'm not lost for words, but I've been hearing so much talk around this. I just want to bring the temperature down and kinda level out the situation. Gambling has always existed and will always exist. Plain and simple. There will always be risk junkies. I at one point had a gambling [00:33:00] problem, and I say that with a question mark because when I was younger.

I like to go on these cruises and I like to go to the casino. Now. Most of the time I would play craps because craps for me, I understand the odds a lot better. I can play for hours and not lose a lot of money and actually make some money, but things like blackjack and poker, I, I haven't focused enough to learn the statistics to really figure out.

I, I just. I haven't decided that I'm going to do that and will never do it because I don't really care that much. Gambling isn't really that big of a deal, but there have been some times where I got into sports betting. 'cause sports betting, online sports betting has been the thing since I was in college.

One of my college friends introduced me to online sports betting. These online, the internet was blowing up, right? Limewire, Napster, online betting. These things were overseas. You put in your debit card, credit [00:34:00] card, and you could make bets just like what you're doing now. Prop bets spread bets over unders, all that type of stuff, right?

My friend got into a little bit of trouble. I didn't get into a little bit of trouble. Because I would do, you know, bookie stuff, like I would work with a bookie and I, I did a couple bets, you know, did, did more than a few, lost some money, owed some money. Was like the worst experience I can ever have is owing somebody money.

Like I don't like owing people money. And I was like the fun of winning. Doesn't overtake the pain of losing and all the circumstances that come after it. So I quit gambling. I mean, I gamble with my life every day with some of the stuff that I do, but like sports betting and stuff, like I'm not into it, won't do it.

I'll do like little pools or things like that. March madness. You throw money in the pot, but it's a little bit of money. That's not my thing. Some people are so rich. That they could [00:35:00] never lose money. Gambling isn't that big of an issue. Like Michael Jordan doesn't have a gambling problem. He, he has too much money.

It's for entertainment. There's never going to be a point where he's gonna be so bad in, in debt that he can't pay his mortgage, can't, can't feed his kids, and all that stuff. That it's entertainment for those people. It's entertainment when you've got the bread and it's under semi control 'cause you can afford it.

The Mafia's Grip: Four Families, One League 🤝🏀🕴️

Bruce Anthony: When you can't afford it, that's when it becomes a problem. That's when the mafia gets their hooks in you. And I don't know how Chauncey got associated with the mafia. I don't think it's difficult. Because before all this online sports betting was around, the only way you could really do bets was do bookies.

And the only bookies that I really know are associated with the mafia. They're either in the mafia or associated with the mafia. And so that's how they could get you hooks in. But the thing, the crazy thing about it is Chauncey made a [00:36:00] tremendous amount of money. So how could you not be able to pay back your debt, but maybe he has a legitimate, serious problem?

I tell you what I would do if I was Chauncey Billups. I'm turning snitch because look, I'm not gonna go to jail. You're for the mafia. You are not a part of that club. Hell, even if you are a part of that club, they break their rules all the time. You could be a standup made man in the mafia and they'll still put a head out on you in jail.

There is no loyalty, and I get it. You have Michael Fran, you got Sammy the bull, you got the, the dude from Philadelphia all talking about this loyalty in the mafia. There is no loyalty. They break their own rules all of the time. Are there some standup people? Yes, but they break their rules all the time.

I've seen it. I history major here and I love the mafia. I've seen it since the beginning of the foundation of the [00:37:00] commission. They break their own rules. Everybody talks about John Gotti and killing Big Paul and how that was a nodo to kill your boss. Carlo Gambino, the most revered, uh, my boss. New York City could come from the five families killed his boss.

He killed Albert Anastasia to get power to get control. That's Vito Genina vase took a, took a head out on Paul Castellano. There was a whole Colombo war, like all these guys do is break their rules. You know why? Because when you're in the street, there are no rules. You could create these arbitrary rules that people think that they follow.

They don't. Because your job in the street is to get over. So how can you ever trust anybody when their sole purpose is to get over? CH Bill needs to snitch. He need to snitch because he ain't gonna make it in jail. There's no guarantee that if he's stand up, that they won't try to do something while he's [00:38:00] in jail.

Might as well be free and tell on everybody because you know what they're not going to do. They're not gonna try and take you out while you're free and walk in the street. Because this is just going, that's a suicide mission. Suicide mission as a, in the, in the means of you're going to jail 'cause you're going to get caught because Chauncey Billups is too high profile, especially after this case, Chauncey snitch snitch.

That's what I would do. Snitch Terry Rose, if you can snitch. I, I all that. Stop snitching stuff. Nah, I'm snitching. I'm snitching. Sorry. That's just what I would do. Now as far as the integrity of the league look, people put a shrine and halo around sports, like it's almost religious and, and in a way, you know, people treat it like a religion.

The south and college sports, they treated it like, like a religion. I used [00:39:00] to. I used to be upset on Sundays. The whole week would be destroyed during the NFL season 'cause my Chicago bears lost on a Sunday. I don't have no financial stake in the Chicago Bears. I don't have no people that work for 'em. I don't got no blood invested in Chicago Bears.

Sports Aren't Pure: The Religion We Worship 🙏🏈💔

Bruce Anthony: Just, I'm from that area Originally, my grandfather, my family followed Chicago Sports, was a fan of 'em. I, I was born into it. And I, and that's my only connection, and there should be no reason why it affects my life. This is supposed to be enjoyment. So 10 years ago, I got off that narcotics of fandom. Right.

I got off that narcotics. But people treat sports as a religion, as its pure thing that should, in a lot of ways, people treat it as the last pure thing in Americana, right, is sports. Because we know our religious institutions [00:40:00] have a lot of corruption. We know our political institutions have a lot of corruption, so we, we need our sports to be pristine.

To find out that it's not hurts a lot of people, and then they think the world is burning and then they think the whole league is corrupt and crooked. That's not the case here. There's what, I don't know, 400 players in the NBA. The majority of 'em are not involved in this. I would say it's a small percentage.

It might be not even 10% that are involved in something like this. And then once again. They're not fixing games. This is not the 1919 or whatever Black Sox that threw the World Series. That ain't happening, okay? 'cause these people fight all of their lives to get to championships. They're not throwing games, they're competitors.

Winning is everything to 'em. But you could win by [00:41:00] five or you could win by three. If I win by five, I don't get no bread. But I can fix it so I can win by three and get a little extra pocket change. That's what's happening here. Is it a big deal? Yes and no. It's not the end of the world. It's sports.

There will still be crowned a champion. That champion will be legitimate. Will there be some gains that they're gonna lose along the way? Sure. You're not gonna cover a little bit of spread. Probably, and this is where it really gets into play, because sports gambling is legal now. These type of scandals are costing people that have legalized it and making billion dollars, billions of dollars off of it money.

And that's what's really at the heart of the issue is billionaires are not getting all of the [00:42:00] money that they should be getting. And are being cheated outta some of the money and they can't have that. So because of that, we have investigations. We have people going to prison because people that are rich in this country are not getting all the money that they can.

I'm also not going to not acknowledge the fact. There's a lot of color that's involved in this on both sides and no Italian people consider themselves white, but that is through necessity for America because when you first got here, you were not considered white as numbers started dwindling, you then became white, but you had to assimilate.

You had to, some had to change their names. There's no more Angelos out there. Now, you're Charlie. Right. You had to change your names, you had to assimilate, then you became white. [00:43:00] But don't get it twisted. Your representation in the media, television, movies is typically this, and I know the majority of Italian Americans are nowhere near associated with the mafia, but that's the representation that America.

Loves to present of you. So the fact that you're wrapped up in here with some black players, don't think that this, don't think that this doesn't escape me, right? Because I brought up Brett Favre scandal and the whole state of Mississippi when he siphon money from the welfare system in Mississippi to help build a volleyball court at the school that his daughter was going to, that didn't get a lot of publicity, did it?

Race & Representation: The Real Narrative 🎭📺✊

Bruce Anthony: It doesn't fit that narrative that most people want to fit. They want to point to Italian Americans, see and be like, see mafia. They want to support, they want to point at black people that have a lot [00:44:00] of money. See criminal. Don't think for one second, these same situations aren't happening in baseball, football, nascar, horse racing, whatever you wanna call it.

And it's not completely racial 'cause they denied Pete Rose from ever getting in the Hall of Fame. He had to die before they let him in the Hall of Fame. So it ain't completely racial. But if they get an opportunity to point. Say, see, I told you so. They absolutely will. And this is a, see I told you so to the point where they're starting to question the whole league, which oh by the way, is overwhelmingly, predominantly black.

I wonder if this happened in baseball. What would be the narrative around it? I'm not gonna dig too deep into that. [00:45:00] Because I don't think this is that big of a deal as far as the league burning down the league is fine. There's some people out there that committed some crimes that's funny as hell and fascinating, but ultimately, what did they do?

They didn't take money away from poor people. They took money away from rich people. And in this country that can never stand.

Bruce Anthony: I love doing these Reddit posts. This one is interesting. Typically, I bring them. For my sister to get fired up. I, I like producing my sister. I like giving her topics where she could just go in and, and y'all love that aspect of the show. Is my sister going in on things that, uh, I present to her. This one for me, [00:46:00] I wanted this one 'cause this.

It pissed me off. Typically with these Reddits, am I the jerk? Am I overreacting? Am I the idiot? I don't really get agitated. I find it funny that people are placed in these type of situations or placed themselves in these type of situations, but this story, this story really pissed me off. I'm going to explain while I'm pissed off, but first, y'all need to hear the full story, so I'm gonna let her explain it.

Friendship Betrayal: The $400 Engagement Party Scam 💔🎉💸

woman: My friend Sierra, a 29-year-old female, invited me a 30-year-old female and three others to what she called a girl's birthday weekend at a nice Airbnb about three hours away.

She said we'd all split the cost evenly since it was a small group celebration. Cool. I agreed, paid my $400 share for the house, and even helped her plan decorations and food. When we arrived, I noticed she'd set up these fancy banners that said, she said yes and a table with engagement themed props.

Turns out her boyfriend [00:47:00] proposed two days earlier and the birthday trip was actually an engagement party disguised as a birthday getaway. Then came the kicker. Sierra announced during dinner that she and her fiance had decided to cover their costs as the guests of honor. Meaning we the friends, would be paying for the Airbnb food and drinks as their gift.

I told her that wasn't what I agreed to and that I wanted my share refunded. Since I didn't sign up to fund her engagement party, she said I was ruining the mood and being cheap over something special. I packed my stuff and left early. The next morning the group chats. Now split. Two friends think I overreacted.

The others think Sierra was manipulative. So Bruce and audience, am I the jerk for refusing to pay for a trip? I was misled into.

Bruce Anthony: Okay. There's a few things that I don't play with in life. I don't play with electricity. Because that's [00:48:00] God, okay. I don't play with my or other people's money. I damn sure don't play with other people's money, right? I hate ing people money. I hate borrowing money. I hate all of that stuff. I don't like lending money out.

Hands Off My Cash: Where I Draw the Line 💵✋🚫

Bruce Anthony: I don't like giving money away. It creates conflict. Everybody, let's just keep money separate. I've dated women who've made significantly more money than me. I still pay my share. 'cause I don't want nobody thinking I'm leaching off of them. Anytime I go out with my friends, it's either we splitting or I'm paying this time, they're paying next time.

I'm all about. Equality. Financial equality, not equity, equality. Right. There's a difference there. Have I been in situations where friends, family had invited me to an occasion, that's for them, and I've spent a lot of money. Yeah. [00:49:00] I have, I do it all for the love, right? Like every now and then I throw a birthday party or I throw a gathering and I don't really ask anybody to put in on anything.

But if they do, great, right? Most of the time I do stuff and it's just like at a bar. It is like, get what you want, don't worry about me, and like, get what you want. I'm just happy that you're here. We do a lot of these Reddit stories and it's a lot of people throwing parties. Celebrations for themselves and expecting other people to pay.

I don't know, and I can't say it's this generation because I know people older than me who used to, mooch off of my parents. Well, my parents, you know, I said it earlier in the show, my parents didn't have a lot of money. They started to have me in college. I mean, by the time I got to. By the time I got to college, so 20 years later, they'd come, they'd come up in the world, you know, built this beautiful home.

Used to always have barbecues and cookouts. People would come over, sometimes they would bring stuff. [00:50:00] A lot of times they wouldn't. And then they would take stuff and sometimes they would bring stuff to the parties. And then take it back home with them. I don't like going over people's houses to go visit them empty handed.

I typically don't. Even if, you know, we're just going to hang out, I'm like, Hey, I'm gonna bring a bottle or something. Like, I don't come over to people's houses empty handed. I don't expect for them to feed me, give me drink, give me enjoyment, all that stuff. Like, I don't expect anything outta people, and I don't want anybody to expect anything outta me.

Let's keep it all equal. No expectations. Let's just chill. So if y'all are going throw a party, if you're gonna throw a party for yourself and you say, let, hey, let's, let's go down the road a little bit. Do a staycation or whatever, get this Airbnb and vibe out all weekend from a birthday. It's gonna be about $1,600 for, for everything we, it's four of us.[00:51:00]

Let's split it four ways. Cool. All right. You know that's okay. That's cool with me. It's your birthday. We gonna go out there and do it. If I pop up and it's now something different, me, you got a problem if I pop up, and not only is it something different, but you expecting more money outta me, not asking me, not asking for more money out of me.

Straight up telling me. Oh, the whole thing done changed. This ain't no birthday party no more. This is an engagement party and y'all gonna pay the whole thing. Nah, hell no. Let me say that again For those people in the back that didn't hear me. Hell no. You create, you lied to me. And if you didn't lie initially, at some point you lied.

Right. At some point there was a re uh, there was a lie that [00:52:00] was told, or a lie can, some can also be something that's unsaid. So if your man proposed and you accepted that beautiful, like, I'm your friend, I'm happy as hell for you. And if you wanna switch up and say, Hey, it's a birthday back slash engagement party.

I'm cool with that, even if it's still a surprise, right? Because I'm your friend. I got love for you. So we arriving, we popping up. Anyway, it's not only a birthday, but now it's an engagement party too. 'cause my friend that I was just coming down with to spend a birthday with, it's now telling me that they're about to get married.

Man, that is beautiful. I'm so happy for you. Let's do it up this weekend. But then you going to hit me with the. Oh, this is going to be a gift from y'all for our engagement. So y'all cover everything and, and is the [00:53:00] boyfriend there because I thought this was supposed to be a girl's trip, right? So why all of a sudden the boyfriend popping up, which changes the whole dynamic in the mood.

And on top of that, you saying, I'm putting out more money. No. I would've did just what you did. I would've asked for that refund, and if we no longer friends after that, cool. 'cause you lied to me. An omission of the truth is still a lie. You lied to me and you expected me to fund this thing for you, and you didn't give me a choice on it.

You didn't even gimme the common courtesy to ask, Hey, would this be cool if I'm your people, if I'm your friend and it's $1,600 and now instead of dividing it four ways, we gotta divide it three ways and I gotta come up maybe an extra [00:54:00] $200, not even. Yeah, I could do that for your for your engagement party if you let me know ahead of time.

But to say that, to throw it out there, not ask, demand it go to hell, kiss my entire ass and it's big kiss the entire thing. I ain't rocking with you like that. I'm not rocking with you like that. And you've damaged our friendship. And then to say that I'm ruining in the mood to not have any understanding how you manipulated the situation for your own benefit and not have any empathy.

Maybe that $400 was the last little bit of $400 that I had. Maybe I didn't have any extra money, but I sacrificed because we were coming to celebrate your birthday. See, that's the way a lot of people don't think about. Look, lemme tell you something. I got, there's a month that is coming up. [00:55:00] I got like 10 friends that got a birthday.

It's like 10 of them in one month. It's gonna be gifts and parties and all types of stuff right? That month can stretch you. It can stretch you. And I've had some down gears when that month has been real tough on me Financially. They don't know that that money that I spent at that party was a little bit of money I had for me that I spent for them.

So that I wouldn't ruin their celebration. You ain't in other people's pockets. You don't know what's going on in their life and to say, well, you gonna come out extra 150, $200, maybe I ain't got it. Maybe the last little bit of money I had was going on this trip. Lemme tell you a story. True story. Never told this before.

Falls in line with what's going on. My friend had a bachelor party. It's in Vegas. [00:56:00] At the same time, I just moved into an apartment with my girlfriend that we can't afford. Okay? I am transitioning careers. I'm starting a new venture, and money is low tight. I'm still bartending on the side, but I'm not bartending at this great place that's bring me a lot of money, and my boy wants to go to Vegas.

Broke in Vegas: A True Story of Loyalty & Sacrifice 🎰😢🤝

Bruce Anthony: It's his bachelor party. I'm gonna make it happen. I worked my ass off to save enough money to not only pay for me but to help pay for him 'cause it's his bachelor party. He don't pay. We get to Vegas. I got a certain amount of money drained my bank account. There is no more money in my bank account. All the cash I got on me is the cash I got on me.

I ran outta cash the last night. I was still able to party, but I had to leave the party [00:57:00] early 'cause I couldn't buy any more drinks. I couldn't do anything else, so I left the party early. My friend got really upset. It's like, why'd you leave the party? I ain't had no more cash. I didn't have the pride. I had too much pride to tell him I had no money.

And when I made no money, nothing, no money left. The next morning is our flight out of Vegas. He's pissed that I left pissed. I can't explain to him, bro. I had no money. My friend was eating some pizza. He's like, Hey man, you wanna slice? I didn't accept a slice of pizza because I didn't want to have to owe him any money for anything.

I also didn't have any money to eat. No money to eat. That's a long flight. It was a long day. I didn't get home that night until after 10:00 PM ran to the fridge, raided it because I hadn't eaten all day because I had no [00:58:00] more money. If my friend is listening to this story, this will be the first time that he ever heard that, and that was well over 20 years ago.

Not well, over 20 years ago. It was a little less than 20 years ago. Right? Doesn't know. That I spent my last little bit of money that I had worked my ass off for him and not once. Not once was I going to make it uncomfortable for him. 18, 20 years later, I'm finally letting out the story that I was flat broke my last little bit of money.

He had no idea. He never asked me for more. He wanted to go to Vegas. We paid, we went. It wasn't like he was like, buy me drinks. The whole, he, he wasn't, he wasn't doing that. He wasn't doing that. And so I didn't mind being flat broke. I went to work the very next day 'cause I had no money. I picked up shifts [00:59:00] for, I picked up shifts two months before leaving, two months after.

For six months. All I did was work to try and get myself outta this hole, but I did it because I had love for him. Now, had we gone, I ran outta money and before we take off on the flight, he's like, Hey bro, we about to do it. Beg, y'all got it right? I would've lost my mind. I would've, I would've been like, man, we just paid enough.

What you talking about? He didn't do that. He a good person. That's the reason why still my friend today, over 30 years of friendship. That's my, that's my brother. This person asked her, didn't ask her, lemme rephrase that. Didn't ask her. Manipulated and saying, y'all got this right. Nah, I ain't got it. And you know what else you might not have ever again is my friendship, because don't you ever think that you could [01:00:00] put your hands in my pocket.

Get your hands out my pocket. Woo. I, it pissed me off. It pissed me off. The audacity of people to be in other people's pockets. To assume that other people owe you something. Don't nobody owe you nothing. Nothing. The only thing that you could ask people to owe you is kindness, to be treated with respect if you treat them with respect.

But as far as that money is concerned, unless you lent them money and they're paying you back. Don't nobody owe you no bread. People out here, be tripping. Kiss my entire ass. That's what I say. Oh my goodness. Look, people out here either being crooked, scamming people through gambling or manipulating friends, but you know what?

You can always count on. You can always count on me. Giving you that raw reel. I'm gonna be consistent about that. I'm not always gonna be [01:01:00] right all the time. I'm right the majority of the time, but not all the time. But most importantly, I appreciate you coming to each and every show showing love. It means the world to me.

And as y'all keep doing that, I'm gonna keep giving y'all this content each and every week. And on that note, I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for watching, and until next time, as always. I'll holler.

Woo. That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast. Wherever you're listening or watching it to it, pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock, we'll enjoy it also.

So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise. For all those people that say, well, I don't have a YouTube. If you have a Gmail account, you have a YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can actually watch our [01:02:00] video podcast and YouTube exclusive content. But the real party is on our Patreon page after Hours Uncensored and talking straight ish after Hours.

Uncensored is another show with my sister, and once again, the key word there is uncensored. Those are exclusively on our Patreon page. Jump onto our website@unsolicitedperspective.com for all things us. That's where you can get all of our audio video, our blogs. And even buy our merch. And if you really feel generous and want to help us out, you can donate on our donations page.

Donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can clearly listen to and that you can clearly see. So any donation would be appreciative. Most importantly, I wanna say thank you, thank you, thank you for listening and watching and supporting us, and I'll catch you next time.

Audi 5,000 Peace.