Maybe Sprewell wasn't exaggerating when he explained turning down a three-year $21million dollar contract extension in 2004 by stating he had a "family to feed?"
Latrell made $96.62 million over the course of his career. Unfortunately, he's not the only NBA player who has failed to display financial foresight.
That's an astonishing statistic in a league where the average salary is $5.2 million a year.
"Last October, former NBA player 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."
Just last month, Shaquille O'Neal's expenses were released due to his impending divorce. Among his $875,015 in monthly expenses are three mortgages totaling $156,116.
How does Shaquille O'Neal, a player who has made an estimated $231,614,005 playing basketball alone (he's probably equaled that amount in endorsements), have mortgage payments?
Who's giving these guys financial advice?
Maybe Shaqille's 2003 antics, in which he screamed "pay me!" to Jerry Buss during a preseason game were as much about financial planning as they were his lack of respect for the man who was paying him $23,571,429 that season?
There's nothing wrong with enjoying the finer things in life and treating oneself to a beautiful home and a few luxury vehicles. After all, many of the NBA's players have devoted their lives to the game of basketball. Fine tuning their crafts with countless hours of practice.
For providing entertainment to the millions of basketball fans around the world, NBA players deserve to be rewarded. The millions are there to be made and I would rather see that money go to the players than the owners.
But it all boils down to this: it's not about how much you make, it's
about how much you save. While the NBA lifestyle is without a doubt
extravagant and many of the players provide for their extended family
and friends, no one is exempt from that natural law.
I hope the NBA player's association is successful in instilling a sense of self discipline in the future generations of NBA stars.
"The saddest thing in life is wasted talent." - A Bronx Tale1993
I think they have a very good shot at winning the Pacific. The Gasol addition is something that sets this franchise up for years to come as long as Bynum and Gasol mesh together. I'm also glad to see Kobe playing the way he's playing.
And I think the road trip was great. I don't care that the competition was bad, last year we were losing to bad comp. A Tayshaun Prince brick and this road trip would've been even better. I can forgive the Hawks loss because you can't win them all.
Actually it won't be a rip off blog, it'll be a rip off of all your information. I'm meeting someone and this'll help me sound like I know what I'm talking about.
are you serious, 65% of them are in debt? Way I see it is if they would think less about having the nicest ride and all the extremely expensive toys then they might not have this problem. They have nobody to blame but themselves. If I made anywhere near that kind of money I would have a nice home, One reliable and nice car, a truck or motorcycle and that's it. All the other stuff like having 3 and 4 vehicles at a price ranging from $50,000 to well over a $100,000 dollars and a milllion dollar home is just retarded. That's my opinion though and they are free to do as they wish with their money. Heck they earned it ,so they can spend it how they please. Glad I'm not in their shoes though, suicide comes to mind thinking about all that.
Hoffman
It'd appear that many of the guys who were either accountants at Enron and Arthur Andersen found themselves some real niche jobs within outside their chosen field. Financial consultants to retired or soon to be retired NBA stars.
Perhaps many of these guys should've finished their education having left college ? Rather than thinking that at the drop of a hat there'd always be someone on hand to give 'em sound advice. A basketball IQ is one thing but having common sense is another. And that's what many of these guys just don't seem to have !
I don't understand it either. Spree make 96M over a career not including outside income and perks. Lets say he pays a 50% tax (which we know he doesn't) that still leaves 48M. My family and friends live off that for the next 2 generations. More than anything it is sad to see. I am not so cynical that I wish them bad things. I don't feel sorry for them either but I do feel empathy. So many athletes making so much money and not being of strong enough character or discipline to handle it. It's easy to condem them for there bad decisions but I figure they have made enough of a mess of their lives without me passing judgement.
You're right, the Gasol addition sets the Lakers up for years. San Antonio and Phoenix's championship windows are closing. Gasol, Bynum, Kobe, and Odom are ALL under 30 years of age.
Kobe has been playing very unselfishly. I saw a comment awhile back that said something to the effect that Kobe would chase LeBron down as the scoring leader over the course of this month and it would be at the detriment of the team.
I can't remember who said it, they probably aren't worth mentioning but obviously that hasn't been the case. Unless forced to press the issue, Bryant is more than willing to distribute.
Unfortunately, I am serious. I understand the adage, the more you make the more you spend. That's true to a certain extent but how could one go through $96 million?
Can you imagine the personal anguish that would go along with knowing you blew $96 million away?
I'd like to know if you could attribute these types of situations to lack of discipline or bad advice?
I hardly doubt any of these guys are doing their own books (what celebrity or athlete does) but you would think it'd pretty simple math when you're making a million dollars a month and spending close to that yourself.
I hate to pass judgment either. Everyone makes mistakes.
Like you, I also feel sorry for a player who has to get a real job after making millions of dollars playing a game.
I'd love to know what Sprewell or Caffey plan to do for a living now.
Scottie Pippen is another example. His financial problems have been reported over the past year or so. In fact, that was his motivation for making a comeback.
He even played an exhibition game in Europe recently.
Since many of these players came from humble beginnings, you would think they would know the value of saving enough to live on for the rest of their lives. It looks to me like Shaq will be broke soon after his income stream stops, his spending disclosure boggles the mind!
Regarding the road trip:
To see how the Lakers have already bonded with Gasol is nothing short of amazing, close to perfection. Gasol assisting Kobe, Kobe assisting Gasol, Odom rebounding like a madman, Sasha and V-rad draining threes, everyone's fg percentage up, it's more than impressive. The other West teams are probably quite depressed - lol
Hoffman,
The way to keep the money coming for atleast most of your life is simple, It's called investment. It's quite easy to set up your own personal buss. when you have the money to do so. So I feel sorry for none of them. They chose to waste money on simple things instead of looking out for their family's future.
Good article Hoffman. Only thing is, you can't just say NBA players are not saving their money. The fact is that less then 2% of American income is saved. The worst in the whole entire world. Our Nation unfortunally is being built on credit and borrow money. We don't teach our kids in school, how to save a dollar, no less where to save a dollar. We are not taught the simple things in life as far as finance. How to buy a house, a car, invest our money,even balance our check book. So to hear that Spree, Caffey, Shaq and even Pippen having financial problems is not surprising to me. I hope as American we read between the lines, you can be a great athlete and make millions of dollars, but if you don't use your money wisely it can be gone just like that. It's not what you make, it what you keep, that's what we needed to learn in school, not physical science. Again good article...I just hope as readers we take upon ourselves to save our own money so we don't end up broke.
I agree and disagree, NBA is the worst. These "humble-raised" NBA players typically weren't born with lots of money, but they do get pampered by coaches and such. They've never had that much money of their own, so they're inclined to spend it.
Interesting how Charles Barkley reportedly gambled $100,000 on the Super Bowl. That money could make or break somebody.
An unbelievable, sad, and storied tale..... but very true indeed. Nice work here Hoffman. I saw Shaq's monthly expenses of over $800,000 a month. A MONTH! Even if you make $20 Million a year in salary......after $800,000 a month in expenses, what does one have left. Zilch, nada, nothing. The Monopoly money these guys make is by far the biggest contributing factor to their financial demise. They honestly believe that they can buy anything they want at anytime without any regard for budgeting like us mere mortals. Most of us, CEO's included, would LOVE to make $800,000 a year, LET alone in 1 month. A middle class person will only make around $2 to $5 Million in their entire lifetime (before taxes). Shaq spends more than that 'lifetime' amount in half of a year. Truly amazing, and truly disturbing.
Highrollers baby....Look at the size rocks these guys put in there ears, they don't give them away, I think most of their families live on them because the players come from tough areas and really never taught the value of money and hard work, you value money when you earn it and I'm not saying that these kids don't work hard but it is just a game ....they play something that most of us did for fun, what they did for fun they just ended up good enough for the free money, good article Hoffman!!!
This is some shameful ####, to make that much money and be broke. Hoffman asks a good question, why is Shaq still paying mortgages? These homes should be paid for. Now with his pending divorce he may find himself in some real financial trouble.
These players really need to learn to manage their money or this will be just the begining of a lot of former players going broke.
its about education and who you hang with. if you have 10 friends who want a piece of the pie, the money goes fast. plus i####uy getse $5million salary, he doesnt get all $5million. subtract taxes, agent fees, etc. just like a $5million costs more than $5million.
and the other factors are getting seven woman pregnant, child support, making it rain at clubs, 5 brand new cars a year, platinum, diamonds, etc. money can go fast if you dont pay attention
trust me im not making excuses for these guys, its their fault.
And, it all has to do with these guys getting multi million dollar checks before they can legally drink and retireing before they're even over the hill
When they're 19,20,21,22 whatever the first thing they're gunna do is buy the most expensive suit, car, house and everything. That was part of the NBA dream. The next thing is buying their family and friends expensive items. Throughout their career that's how they live by buying everything, but when they retire at 37,38,39 then they still got plenty of life to live, but they can't make the switch to a lesser lifestyle. That's how these guys end up blowing 200 mil
Maybe the NBA needs to teach these prima donna's how to keep their #### in their pants and quit having so many children...But like MLB, the owners and executives don't care about what's going on, only that they put fans in the seats. NBA...the most boring sport on TV. I'd rather watch CSPAN.
Uh, folks. I've stayed up listening to the game when Chamberlain scored his 100 against the Knicks in Hershey. I've also been working 40+ years AND still haven't made a million dollars TOTAL in my lifetime. Thus 96 mil would last me and my entire future family 3,840 years! Give me a GD break about millionaire's complaining about having NO money!
Last edited by MrPibb on February 13th at 5:17 AM.
I totally agree. However, I don't hold one shred of responsibility upon the NBA. After all, the company I work for, and I assume most everyone else's, is not responsible for how I spend the money they pay me. Sure, my work place provides 401k and retirement advice and class, but they are far from responsible for how I decide to invest/spend my paychecks. I realized that when I was 15 years old working my first grocery store stocker job. So, don't tell me these athletes don't understand the value of the dollar. They do, they just aren't humble enough to realize that they aren't gonna be Supermen forever, and forever earning millions of dollars to keep sustaining their spending habits. When you go from nothing to big time in such a short time span, it's easy to want to buy everything you feel you missed out on growing up, and similarly taking care of your underpriveledged friends and family too. However, where they fall into trouble is that they keep handing out to friends and family. The number of relatives and posse to take care of keeps growing exponentially with each digit added to the player's contract. I also think that most of these guys' egos are built on their physical abilities, that they are yearning for everyone around them to appreciate them for something else besides their abilities. Unfortunately they think money and gifts will satisfy that yearning for acceptance. If anyone is to blame, perhaps look back to the high school and jr. high levels where a level head isn't taught to these kids.
I've been from rags to riches to rags to riches several t
The value system in this country is way off. Its all about what you have on the outside, and not what you have in the bank. No wonder we have a terrible economy with with people not having any money in their savings. Parents need to teach their kids the value of the dollar, not the value of having rims and a big screen.
yup. it is amazing. then figure during the season they don't pay for hotels, airfare or meals. extravagent lifestyles and too many hangers-on. not just b-ballers, but i bet many celebrities are in the same boat.
Stories like these always make me scratch my head. I understand that these players have a lot of money going out to the grand expenses of their grand lives, but this is completely unacceptable. Mortgages? Car payments? Boat payments? Are you kidding me??? Buy your home/car/boat flat out, you can afford it, and owning your home/car/boat will allow you to have assests with significant value to bail you out post-career if things get tough!
A lot of players also make the mistake of building huge homes that come with huge property taxes that are unaffordable once their career is over. Hell, buy a giant house (out-right) and a more modest one to retire to later. That way you'll be set up in case you can no longer afford to live in the monster home.
One simple solution that any of them can do to secure their future is purchase a Jumbo CD! Live off the monthly interest.
who the heck is going to pay for a house straight up? If you get $5million a year you're not going out and pay $4million in cash for a house. thats stupid nobody does that.
and cars are not assets, they drop in value once you drive it off a lot. hold onto it for 40years and maybe it will be a collectbale, maybe not. plus its 2008, what player wants a 04 benz? got to have the new 2008 benz.
These guys retire when they're 35, usually their wifes dont work, have kids, multihouses, people still wanting hand outs, companies asking for donations.
and stop comparing your paycheck to theirs. we know they get over paid, get over it.
"Since many of these players came from humble beginnings, you would think they would know the value of saving enough to live on for the rest of their lives."
It's probably the exact opposite nba.
I love Pau's game. I wanted to see him traded to the Bulls this season because I thought it would make them contenders.
Adding him to a lineup featuring Kobe, Lamar, & Andrew gives LA the talent to match up with anyone.
I predicted a 6-3 finish on this road trip. If the Lakers lose, I'm proven right. If they win, I'm proven wrong (lol).
"They chose to waste money on simple things instead of looking out for their family's future."
I think that would be the worst regret. The fact that you were in position to take care of future generations of your family and you squandered it away.
zdeane,
Who in their right mind buys a 4 mill. dollar home? is a two hundred or just above that thousand dollar home not big enough? These athletes are morons plain and simple. Their no different than the kid down the block that just because his friend got 20 inch rims had to go and get 22's. They simply are out to impress everyone with their lavish life-style and when it's all said and done they look like fools.
Both players can afford to gamble and they look at it as entertainment. I'm confident that each possesses the wisdom to not exceed their means.
Who doesn't like to spend money?
I think the responsibility falls on the NBA. Obviously, the players need to be responsible for themselves as well but many of these guys are kids when they enter the league.
The fact of the matter is that there is probably a large percentage who haven't been blessed with great models growing up and haven't been taught the value of a saved dollar.
Dribbling a ball doesn't make these guys financially smart. Paying their posses, ####ing all these girls unprotected, having leeches for business partners. It all goes out the window with attitudes like that........
Thanks. Taking care of one's family and friends is admirable but you have to draw the line somewhere.
I'd really like to know if the majority of these situations can be attributed to bad advice or lack of restraint.
jet9 -
You're right, with his impending divorce and the fact that he only has a couple more years of his career left, Shaq needs to learn some self discipline...now.
The fact that he's paying on 3 homes is very revealing.
He has two more years on his contract with a combined $40 million dollars. He won't be able to spend $800,000 a month for the next 40 years.
Last edited by Hoffman on February 13th at 9:11 AM.
Man! most NBA players are coming from the #### and they surely want to erase those old memories from the "hood" out of their minds, and what better way to do it than blewing all their finances, I mean, they surely deserve what they are getting, how come they were living in poverty and when the cash arrived, it flew as fast as it came?
Stupid is as stupid does. just because you make 20 mil a year, you don't have to have 26 inch platinum rims, you don't need 60 inch state of the atr $20,000 tv in every room of your house, just because you can, do not mean you have to. This is the problem with wealth in this country. I don't hate on no one, but how can you go broke with 96 million, and the small town you from did not receive any of it in the form of support. Kids are starving, while these idiots throw awya 200 dollar meals, 40 room houses for 3 people, its insane, and I am sure thers is nothing worse than being poor, becoming very rich, and then being poor again. HUMBLING I am sure
Face it spending money is fun. Being able to buy the "toys" you would like to have is fun. The difference between people like us and the people like Shaq is that we know we have to limit the toys we buy because we know if we spend too much, we may not have a roof over our head or food on our tables soon.
They do not see the end of the road. They simply cannot visualize it all being gone. There is just so much to start with.
The sums are so astronomical, that they can't conceive of spending it all. Some of them make as much as the national gross products of some small countries. These are basketball players, some with little or no college education. They are not equipped to handle that much money. How many of us would be?
I am not excusing them. Plenty of them do find a way to manage. People make fun of Tim Duncan for being boring, because he would rather stay home and play video games with his friends than go out to the clubs and get his face in the news all the time. But I bet you will never see his name in the paper having his home foreclosed on.
Then one day they look up and find they were wrong. But let's face it being "broke" to them is different from being broke to us. Most of them have pensions set up by the league that is untouchable in lawsuits and forclosures. What was it that OJ had that was untouchable. Something like $20,000. a month.
So they have to seel the 10 million dollar home and move into a million dollar home. Poor babies. And start driving Mercedes instead of Bentleys. I so feel for them.
Maybe the NBA should force these guys to go to a financial counseling course when they enter the league. The military does it. It couldn't hurt. I like the rest of you couldn't fathom blowing $96M, or paying out $800K/month in expenses, but who am I to judge? Personally, I would have invested at least 25% of my annual salary if I made that kind of green.
I'll tell you why more than half of the players in the NBA are broke. Most of them come from nothing and now that they are making millions they don't know how to handle it. Also, many of them are trying to live up to that "thug" life style. Wake up you pro players...once your money is gone, so are your so called "friends".
You can take a man out of the hood but you cant take the hood out pf the man. You give an un-educated man a million dollars, it doesnt make the man educated. It just makes a stupid man rich. Thats why they buy 200K dollar necklaces and million dollar boats when they probably cant even swim, let alone read the fine print on the contract to buy it. They need to raise the minimum IQ requirements not the minimum age. If they gave the NBA players a reading test I bet half of them would fail or only reach the level of a 7th grader. Its just a sad day when you can call these types of people so called "professionals" in any thing.
I love basketball. While many basketball fans enjoy the month of March, I prefer the months of April, May, and June. I look forward to productive chats, heated debates, and honest opinions.
