Latrell Sprewell. Career earnings: $96,622,500. Bankrupt.

[meeklay]

Originally Posted by richwig

Man, this $4 per gallon gas price is killing everyone!

[Touchdown MSU]

Sprewell must have been hanging with Scottie Pippen

The NBA Players’ Association met with the Toronto Raptors recently to discuss financial prudence among players and during that meeting cited a statistic that scared the heck out of most of the team. It was said that 60% of NBA players go broke after only 5 years of retirement! Are you kidding me?!? That statistic however is said to be an educated estimate and some players actually have a hard time believing it. The statistic could be used as a scare tactic, but it is definitely something these players should be paying attention to.

“Sixty percent is a ballpark. But we’ve seen a lot of guys who’ve really come into hard times five years after they leave the league,” said Roy Hinson, the former NBA forward who’s a representative for the players’ association. “The problems are, for a lot of guys, they have a lot of cars, they have multiple homes, and they’re taking care of their parents. They’re taking care of a whole host of issues. And the checks aren’t coming in anymore.”

“Sometimes you can stop the bleeding, and other times you can’t stop the bleeding,” said Hinson, who added that many players associate with “too many ‘yes’ people.”

We’ve all heard the stories of NBA players owning 15 cars and 5 vacation homes. The sad part is most of these players lack educations and support outside of their posses and families. Most of these players could use some legal guidance as well as financial guidance but seem at times to not be so willing. The players’ association has continually proposed a financial firm that offers players free 2nd opinions on their financials, but getting these players to act has been a challenge.

Back in October, Jason Caffey, who made an estimated $29 million during his eight-year NBA career, was in bankruptcy court seeking protection from his creditors, among them the seven women with whom he fathered eight children.

Shaquille O’Neal of the Miami Heat was in the news recently with a court document representing his annual income as well as his annual and monthly spending. The “Diesel” pays $156,000 a month just in rent and mortgages on the various properties he owns or leases and another $1500 just for his cable TV bills! Of course Shaq is on another level than most other NBA players with the simple fact that he pulls in $20 million a year in salary but this still shows you a great example of the kind of money players are capable of spending.

Remember former Chicago Bull, 6 time NBA Champion, Michael Jordan running mate and top 50 player of all-time Scottie Pippen? Just 2 years removed from retirement, Pippen was back in the news looking to make an NBA comeback to a team that was a title contender. NBA teams laughed at a Pippen return which was later rumored to be based on his poor financial standing. The rise and fall of Pippen was so drastic that he was seen overseas playing 2 games for Finnish powerhouse, Helsinki ToPo to make a little cash.

Besides the fact that players fork out all of this dough for houses, cars and cable bills you still can’t forget that many of them have multiple children from multiple women. This is yet another expense that must be accounted for and child support is one of those bills that doesn’t go away for at least 18 years. Again, you can see how 5 years removed from an NBA career with 2-3 child support payments a month and you could run out of millions pretty damn fast.

Jason Kapono of the Toronto Raptors expressed his thoughts after the players’ association presented their materials. “Going above and beyond isn’t worth it. I don’t want to be a part of that 60% that’s in trouble five years down the road. It’s a short career and I’m blessed to be earning a great salary playing basketball. But if it ended, my contract only takes me to age 30. Life expectancy is 80-plus. So I’ve got another 50 years. Do I really need to buy another car?”

[STSM]

Originally Posted by IGGcitable

If I were the IRS, or the FBI, or the Bureau of Homeland Security, I'd be VERRRRRRRRRRRRRY interested in finding out EXACTLY where that money went.



You couldn't get rid of $96 million in 12 years if you stood in your living room throwing $100 bills into the fireplace 24/7/365.

Well half of it went to taxes.

[16fan]

come on spree you too legit to quit

[teamdiscoverychannel]

Originally Posted by Spartanic

Did Sprewell attend a college? Graduate?

Degree in choking sciences.

[mitch cumstein]

question about the shaq thing a few posts previous. it says he spends $156,000/mo on mortgages and rent.

if you made $20mil/year plus probably double that in endorsements, WTF would you have mortage payments?

[Colonel Forbin]

Originally Posted by mitch cumstein

question about the shaq thing a few posts previous. it says he spends $156,000/mo on mortgages and rent.

if you made $20mil/year plus probably double that in endorsements, WTF would you have mortage payments?

I'm assuming for tax reasons.

[Colonel Forbin]

Karma's a bitch, eh Spree?

[mitch cumstein]

Originally Posted by Colonel Forbin

I'm assuming for tax reasons.

yeah, but wouldn't the interest that you pay on those mortgages (assuming he's paying interest . he might have found a way out of that) at some point exceed the amount of taxes that you would pay?

it just seems ridiculous at that point to even worry about taxes. let's say he clears $30mil/year....in one year he could buy a $10mil house, a $5mil house and 2 $3mil houses and still have $9mil in his pocket, with $21mil sitting there appreciating.

FTR, i know nothing about finance and i don't know what shaq grosses a year with his NBA contract and endorsements, but i would assume its at least $50mil.

[Babies Need Tickets]

According to a quick read of the article, it simply says stuff is getting repossessed because he has not been making payments. So he's not neccessarily bankrupt (though it certainly wouldn't surprise me).

[spartyman]

Somewhere, PJ Carlesimo is laughing his arse off and counting his own money.

[greenfever]

I know a guy that is friends with Drew Henson. Henson apparently took a majority of his money and wisely invested it. He said Henson's cheap. When you go out he doesn't buy all the beers etc. He's a guy that even though it didn't work out in either league will probably be financially secure for his entire life.

I know the NFL is much different but the gridiron great stuff going on is kind of frustrating. A lot of the older guys got screwed but some of the younger guys that flamed out just blew all their miney and now they want financial assistance. Medical assisatnce is fine but if they blew all their $$ then tough.

[UKCatFan]

Spree and Caffey both attended Alabama.

[va slim]

Originally Posted by IGGcitable

If I were the IRS, or the FBI, or the Bureau of Homeland Security, I'd be VERRRRRRRRRRRRRY interested in finding out EXACTLY where that money went.



You couldn't get rid of $96 million in 12 years if you stood in your living room throwing $100 bills into the fireplace 24/7/365.

Throw $100 in fireplace every 6.57 minutes

[Ocens11]

Originally Posted by greenfever

I know a guy that is friends with Drew Henson. Henson apparently took a majority of his money and wisely invested it. He said Henson's cheap. When you go out he doesn't buy all the beers etc. He's a guy that even though it didn't work out in either league will probably be financially secure for his entire life.

I know the NFL is much different but the gridiron great stuff going on is kind of frustrating. A lot of the older guys got screwed but some of the younger guys that flamed out just blew all their miney and now they want financial assistance. Medical assisatnce is fine but if they blew all their $$ then tough.

Good for him. From what I remember Henson's a smart guy.

[StatsETC]

Paging Lenny Dykstra:

Dykstra proving he's still a player -- in business - MLB - SI.com

[LA_Spartan]

Originally Posted by mitch cumstein

yeah, but wouldn't the interest that you pay on those mortgages (assuming he's paying interest . he might have found a way out of that) at some point exceed the amount of taxes that you would pay?

it just seems ridiculous at that point to even worry about taxes. let's say he clears $30mil/year....in one year he could buy a $10mil house, a $5mil house and 2 $3mil houses and still have $9mil in his pocket, with $21mil sitting there appreciating.

FTR, i know nothing about finance and i don't know what shaq grosses a year with his NBA contract and endorsements, but i would assume its at least $50mil.

Many wealth folks keep their real estate mortgaged to the hilt with interest only mortgages. Allows them to maximize their write offs and keep their wealth in the stock market, which is a much better long term investment than real estate.

[Ignignokt]

Originally Posted by caspper69

You guys can laugh all you want, but there's a seriously untapped market out there for people with that kind of money and no real *sound* financial advice.

We've been trying to establish several mutual funds for these guys. Believe me, the business ideas they invest in (and by *they* I mean professional athletes), that have zero, and I mean ZERO chance for a payoff. One NBA player we were dealing with was about to drop $10MM on a home builder, in the MIDDLE of the subprime crisis with a gluttony of unsold homes on the market. The guys that have these athlete's ears are not folks that *should* have their ear.

It kind of makes me sick seeing it from the other side. It's really disgusting how professional athetes are treated because they make a ton on the 1st and 15th of the month.

No joke.

Huh? There's no shortage of good places to go if you have a ****load of money. If anything, there's a glut of them because everyone wants to have free reign to invest tens of millions. All you do if you make as much as Spreewell did is call up any bank and say "I have 10 million (or whatever) and I want to invest it." It's not really that difficult.

And I don't get how you act like people are doing this to these athletes. They have the same access to good investment services as anyone. They just choose to blow their money instead. Oh well.

[MSUisbetterthanu]

Originally Posted by GoBlueFromOhio

Didn't he have a business called sprewell racing or soemthing? Maybe that business sucked up his funds. Maybe he is claiming bankruptcy to get rid of his debt and still has tons of cash socked away?

Yeah, he had the Sprewell Wheel company too. I actually thought he was doing pretty well with that. I remember seeing ads in Dupont Registry and various mentions on Cribs for his wheels.

[MSUisbetterthanu]

Originally Posted by Touchdown MSU

Sprewell must have been hanging with Scottie Pippen

I went to Chicago a couple months ago and Pippen was in front of me at a parking garage and we ended up having our cars parked together. FTR, he was driving a new (plates weren't even on it yet) Supercharged Range Rover.