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Sprewell’s yacht sold, home could be foreclosed

Ex-NBA star owes $295,138 on his Milwaukee-area house


updated 5:11 p.m. CT, Mon., Feb. 11, 2008

MILWAUKEE - Former NBA star Latrell Sprewell’s home is up for foreclosure and his yacht sold at auction to help pay off the $1.3 million he owes on the boat, according to court filings.

Sprewell, who once turned down a three-year, $21 million contract extension saying, “I’ve got my family to feed,” has apparently fallen on tough times.

RBS Citizens NA, or Citizens Bank, filed a foreclosure suit last week in Milwaukee County for the $405,000 home Sprewell bought in the Milwaukee suburb of River Hills in 1994.

In court documents, the bank said Sprewell owed $295,138 in outstanding payments plus interest.

Sprewell failed to make his mortgage payments of $2,593 per month from September 2007 to January 2008, the documents said.

The Associated Press tried to reach Sprewell for comment Monday but a telephone number in his name was disconnected. A message to one of his attorneys, Robert A. Gist of Atlanta, and an agency in New York were not immediately returned.

The 37-year-old Sprewell played 13 seasons in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the New York Knicks and the Golden State Warriors. The Milwaukee native was a four-time All-Star, but perhaps best known for choking coach P.J. Carlesimo during a Warriors practice in 1997.

He hasn’t played professional basketball since turning down the $21 million extension from the Timberwolves during the 2004-05 season. He was making $14.6 million at the time.

Last month, Sprewell’s 70-foot yacht, named “Milwaukee’s Best,” was sold at auction for $856,000 to a man from Milwaukee.

It was originally worth about $1.5 million. The bank holding that mortgage, New York-based North Fork Bank, asked that it be seized to pay off $1.3 million in debt.

Sprewell’s firm, LSF Marine Holdings, hadn’t made its $10,322 monthly payments on time or maintained the necessary insurance on the boat, the bank said. Sprewell bought the yacht built by the Italian firm Azimut-Benetti in 2003, according to court records.

A federal marshal seized the boat last summer in Manitowoc, about 80 miles north of Milwaukee, where it was in storage.

The sale price means the bank is still owed about $500,000, and it said in court filings it plans to go after the rest.

Last week, prosecutors in New York said they’d drop their case against Sprewell, who was accused of assaulting his girlfriend in front of their children. Prosecutors in Westchester County said the charges will be dismissed in a year if Sprewell stays out of trouble.