This might be one of the weirdest firings in NBA history.

John Begzos had been running the Spurs through the ABA-NBA merger, then took over as GM of the Kansas City Kings in 1979. His first year there, they went 47-35 and made the playoffs.

Then in 1980 he bought $240 worth of stamps from a neighbor for $120 and sold them to the Kings for the same $120. Apparently some of the stamps had already been used. A postman noticed something was off, postal inspectors got involved, and the Kings asked Begzos to resign.

He refused, so they fired him. Over the stamps.

I went down the rabbit hole on Begzos a while back because I’d never heard this story before:

https://deepbenchchronicles.com/2026/02/16/john-begzos-and-the-most-absurd-firing-in-nba-history/

RoyalOakPiguet | NYK

383 | a day ago

Most corrupt front office in league history

Joabyjojo | LAL

157 | a day ago

Pablo Torres suspiciously quiet on this one

Comrade_agent | NBA

16 | a day ago

he was part of it

bubbles2255 | SAC

136 | a day ago

Of course it was us

kingsfan52 | SAC

5 | 16 hours ago

At least we’re consistent

GoldenStateCapital | MIA

666 | a day ago

13 charges too. Google NBA Mailman 13

scene_missing |

118 | a day ago

I have to hand it to the posters on r/nba. Y’all are on your game

User-NetOfInter | BOS

71 | a day ago

Impregnated a 13 year old what the fuckkk

SamuraiSevens

67 | a day ago

Pretty sure she was 12 when he raped her

Blistersonmytoes

5 | 9 hours ago

She was 13, not that it really changes anything

KaiserSosai | DET

55 | a day ago

Fuck that guy.

Ok_Argument_67 | BOS

30 | 21 hours ago

Outjerked by the main sub once again

OsikFTW | SEA

27 | a day ago

Huh, that search btought up some disgusting karl malone shit…

Suspicious-Whippet

59 | a day ago

Who would’ve thunk it

No-Economics4128 | SAS

7 | 18 hours ago

That is the very point

JollyCoach8030

-4 | 9 hours ago

Thirteen charges makes the whole story even crazier, I definitely need to go down this rabbit hole now

Rlccm | DET

140 | a day ago

Well he was certainly an idiot. You don’t want postal inspectors involved in anything, ever.

AccelerationFinish

32 | 21 hours ago

In addition to being a Postmaster, I’m a General. And we both know it’s the job of a General to, by God, get things DONE.

BAHatesToFly | NYK

7 | 20 hours ago

So maybe you can understand why I get a little irritated when someone calls me away from my golf.

Fresh-Mind6048 | POR

58 | a day ago

Yeah. Postal inspectors will absolutely fuck you up. Avoid at all costs.

Plies- | BOS

39 | a day ago

Turns out doing Federal crimes is bad.

I’m a mail carrier and during orientation they really made it seem like they would come out of nowhere like the men in black and send your ass to jail if you fucked around.

There are catwalks (with one way mirrors too) in a lot of post offices from where they would watch the workers before CCTV became widespread if they suspected something.

Lance_the_Lamp | TOR

2 | a day ago

doesn’t the secret service also get involved in postal matters??

EvilChameleon09 | CLE

22 | a day ago

No, that’s counterfeit money.

LinechargeII

5 | 20 hours ago

and only if it’s a decent amount. if called over a fake $100 they’ll be like “the fuck do you want me to do?”

Formal-Question7707

1 | 9 hours ago

Maybe you’re thinking of the FBI? Because these are federal matters.

camergen

45 | a day ago

I don’t understand his neighbor- did he have a shit ton of stamps left over and was like “I gotta get rid of these- hey man, you want these for half price?”?

_reposado_ | POR

27 | a day ago

It sounds like the neighbor was harvesting used stamps and selling them for half off.

fufluns12

37 | a day ago

The Post Office used to print stamps with new values whenever the cost to mail a letter changed (stamps don’t change now). That left billions of unused, ‘obsolete’ stamps in circulation. You can still use old stamps, but you end up having to mix and match stamps with different denominations, and you might end up paying more to mail your letter than you should. People sell them at a discount because they’re basically not as useful as they used to be.

That’s the gist of why you can still buy stamps today for less than their face value, but if there were used ones in there then it was definitely a scam as well.

CKRatKing | PHX

8 | 18 hours ago

They have always had 1 cent stamps so I don’t understand why anyone would ever sell stamps for less than their face value. Even if they sold 25 cent stamps and raised the price to 35 cents you’d just buy a book of 1 cent stamps. You wouldn’t sell your 25 cent book at half price to go buy 35 cent ones. Makes no sense.

Someone selling stamps at half price is almost certainly selling stolen stamps or used ones.

DeathStar13 | Italy

9 | 15 hours ago

If you sell them at full price people will just buy them directly from official sources and you will never get off of them.

The idea is that you have something you don’t need anymore and to recover at least something, so you sell them at a lower price.

Half price is a little steep, but selling at a discount is the basis of selling a surplus.

gurban

2 | 15 hours ago

Costco sells stamps at below face value.

Monkeyfeng | UTA

47 | a day ago

I mean this is mail fraud and it’s a federal crime.

GiuseppeZangara

35 | a day ago

It’s a felony. You probably don’t want someone who is stupid enough to commit a felony to save a few bucks being anywhere close your business.

camergen

7 | a day ago

I’m a postmaster, but also a general. And it’s the job of a general to, by God, get things done!

KDs4thBurner

11 | a day ago

You sound like that USPS guy on Brooklyn 99.

WaterHaven

11 | a day ago

Jack Danger…..pronounced Donger lol

General_Tsos_Burrito

2 | 20 hours ago

He goes by Jackie. Jackie Donger.

noname_SU

30 | a day ago

well someone that would do this is probably someone that would eventually get the organization jammed up with salary cap circumvention or something else. Kings did the right thing.

DealerNo4908

3 | 19 hours ago

lol what a leap! He didn’t even sell the stamps for a profit.

b_borno

14 | a day ago

Whoever you are and whatever you do, don’t fuck with the post office

lukemcr | SAC

4 | 20 hours ago

Wtf I’m a kings fan and a philatelist, I hate that this happened

aoifhasoifha | NYK

5 | 21 hours ago

Let’s be real here- guys who are good at their jobs don’t get fired over things like this.

Stylish_Duck | SAS

1 | 3 hours ago

My thoughts exactly

m8bear | Argentina

8 | a day ago

this is the event that cursed the kings forever

SaltyCopy

3 | 21 hours ago

Mailmen control….. information

naive-dragon | PHI

3 | 19 hours ago

The George Mikan of Steve Ballmers

poirotsdad

2 | a day ago

People used to reuse uncancelled stamps all the time back then as well

anonymous_otter28 | HOU

2 | a day ago

Adam Silver using his zorpPod time traveling spaceship to do this and not combat gambling is bullshit.

SnooPies6274 | ORL

1 | a day ago

Do people still collect stamps? I remember as a kid that was a thing

bassicallyinsane | POR

1 | 19 hours ago

Joe Cronin is sweating

Bitgod1 | SAC

1 | 12 hours ago

Kangz. Kangz never changes.

votelikeimhot | POR

1 | 8 hours ago

What the fuck does Portland losing by 17 have to do with anything. Goddammn catching strays like a dog catcher

Hummer77x | PHI

1 | a day ago

Why did he do that.

JollyCoach8030

0 | 9 hours ago

Getting fired over $120 worth of used stamps has to be one of the most bizarre ways to lose an NBA job

An NBA GM once got fired over $120 worth of used postage stamps