You probably shouldn’t ever tweet at professional athletes, but definitely not because of your losing parlay bet.
The recent launch of legalized sports betting in Tennessee and beyond has made social media interactions more precarious than ever for pro players.
We’re glad to see Kyle Anderson of the Memphis Grizzlies at least had a humorous approach in his most recent run-in with a bettor.
Who knows, maybe the exchange could end up earning this random Twitter troll some dough. Though frankly, we hope it will serve as a deterrent for fans in the future.
Anderson says he’ll reimburse bettor via Cash App
Anderson’s interaction came via tweet late Saturday night after the Grizzlies earned a 113-106 win over the Houston Rockets.
Yes, you read that right. Because of betting, athletes are now catching flack from the public even when their teams win.
Anderson even scored 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in the win, but the “issue” in question resulted from his free-throw performance. There, Anderson had an off night, going 6 of 14 from the stripe.
The bettor (whose handle we’ll leave out to discourage such behavior) chided Anderson for ruining his parlay, using colorful language along the way.
Not that it matters, but the bettor did not specify whether his busted bet was a prop bet on Anderson’s free throws, or just a spread bet.
Based on the late-game scenario, it was likely a bet against the spread. Anderson split three pairs of free throws in the final 71 seconds of the game. Memphis was a 7.5-point favorite and won by 7.
Anderson responded playfully and with self-deprecation.
“Yeah it was pretty bad my bad bro,” said a tweet from Anderson’s verified account, @KyleAnderson5. “Send ur cashapp ill send you what you lost.”
By Monday, Anderson’s tweet was deleted.
Sports betting etiquette: don’t tweet your failed bets to pro athletes
This should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: Professional athletes don’t care about your parlay.
And, definitely don’t ever be hostile toward an athlete on social media if they contribute toward your losing bet. For that matter, it’s good practice to avoid hostility on social media altogether. (And if you can’t, maybe avoid social media completely?)
We’ll add this interaction to the list of things people definitely shouldn’t do on social media but will probably keep doing anyways.
At least Anderson was a good sport about it. But hopefully, he didn’t actually pay up.
