60% of NBA Players broke 5 years into retirement..

[BobbySura]

since the nba is not like a normal job and one usually retires before they are 40, i don't see why it's that hard to save your money until then.

but i guess a lot of these guys grew up with absolutely nothing and once they get a little money it's like heaven.

see telfair, sebastian.

[barrist]

holy shnikies this aricle reaks of racism. Holy shnikies. WTF. This article cites Jason Caffey and Scootie Piippen as those that are struggling financial problems. No Shnikies we know Scottie has been broke and weve laughed at him. Oh noes Jason Caffey is broke. OH noeeeeeeeeeessssss

I cant believe the over generalixations of this article

[_SRV_]

For guys like Von Wafer, Justin Williams, and many other 2nd rounders/ undrafted signings and even late 1st rounders, it doesn't take stupidity to go broke, just an unfortunate sequence of events or unfortunate investment, now count how many guys like that are there in the league, and consider the fact that they come and go at a much higher rate than long term signed players and you'll see that it's not out of the world to happen.
The interesting statistic is to take players who made more than 5 millions and see who went broke, I don't think you'll find a lot of them, even stupid people have families and friends to straighten their acts.

[SmoothKobra]

There are alot of players playing on minimum contracts that could easily go broke. But nowhere near 60% of the league. Solid starters in the league who make a couple million a year aren't going broke. Sure there are a few players who completely squander their wealth, but that's totally out of the norm. I could see the 10th, 11th, 12th man on the team having financial problems in the future, but most NBA players aren't idiots who just waste money, like Andrew Bogut said. These dudes did goto college, and you can't forget all those rookie seminars they goto to teach them how to do things like manage money.

[powerforward]

roy hinson was traded for brad daugherty iirc.
he was a decent player in the 80's

[Air Kukoc]

Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to go broke if you have a brain in your head? I just graduated from school about a year ago with 17 dollars to my name and make 47k a year, not bad but not anything special, and it would take some sort of horrible life event to break me. It's called living modestly within your means and isn't hard.

[Joker]

If I had 20 million dollars, if that dwindled down to 10 million, that would probably be enough for me to hit the panic button. It sounds like some of these guys go from 20 million to 20 thousand before they realize they're making some bad choices with their money.

[Rooster]

There are a few factors at work here. I also think many of you are being too judgmental.

1. Most NBA players aren't filthy rich. As mentioned, think of all the 10-day guys, minimum salary for one year of their life guys, etc.

2. Various taxes absolutely plunder fortunes that big.

3. Unlike people like Air Kukoc, who could easily be making way more at age 40 or 45 than he does now (and probably will), there's a finite income stream for NBA players. When you receive the money is almost as important as how much it is. Which leads me to...

4. If you were to receive almost your entire life's earnings in 4-5 years, you might blow it too. When faced with an instant lump sum (or at least something close) the natural if blatantly incorrect action is to feel like it's infinite. It's a psychological trap that's very easy to enter if your family doesn't have any financial background.

5. As mentioned, there's the financial one-upmanship. This can hit a lot of people too. Even monarchies from way back when would bankrupt themselves and each other in search of the best this, the best that, etc. A modern-day example would be the USSR going broke. They were all idiots too though, right?

6. As with point #4, a lot of these guys receive terrible financial advice. Look at a guy like James Lang. Still a young man, a couple years removed from NBA experience, maybe saw 10 games at most... and now can't play NCAA ball and doesn't have a college degree. See how easy it is for someone's life to be turned upside-down?

7. A lot of players have to support their families, which can be quite large, and maybe their friends too. This is also a matter of expectation. Smush Parker (while being a minimum-earning undrafted rookie!) once said that his sister would ask him for a CD and a sweater for Christmas before but now wanted really fancy things. The posse effect works both ways - think of all the young players who were brought up to obey their parents and now those parents want expensive things because their son's "made it" and they don't get money.

8. As mentioned, if the player's been out of the league for five years, he hasn't seen much of either of the last two CBAs. Way back when, being a basketball player didn't make you rich.

Writing these guys off as stupid is myopic and a failure to see this situation for what it really is. These guys face situations we could never dream of and it's too easy to sit back and armchair financial plan.

[Platapie]

Wow 7% interest, you can get interest that high on a mill? Most i've ever seen on anything over 50K is like 2%. Then again, I havn't really looked into it much.

You've already been criticized for this comment but you do realize interest does not have anything to do with the amount of money you have right? And for the record, you can get 4% in a friggen bank account these days. Someone earlier said 15% a year is easy, which is pushing it a lot, but if you're investing in a managed you want to at least beat an index by your MER, which I guess should be around 15%. Very few fund managers do, but that's an argument for another thread.

[GIVE_WADE_THE_MAX]

This argument would hold a lot more credence if it came from Bill Hunter(NBPA Executive Director). The basis for the article lies in claims made by somone not very high up on the totem pole(Hinson). And his claims are just a ballpark figure. You make your own judgement.

[Kyrama]

Pro athletes aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. It doesn't really surprise me.

[treefi]

Not suprising at all... Government takes half right away.. 5 years is longer than you may realize to not be working.. Even if they saved half their money.. the cost to keep the same celebrity lifestyle as when they were getting paid is a lot.. and most players out of the league(or "retired") never made millions of dollars. Something else to consider is most players are confident and convinced that they are going to make more and more money. A rookie that signs for $400,000(which is $200,000) doesn't ever think for a second that after his first year he was NOT going to prove to everyone that he deserves more money. In his mind he was going to play his game and sign for millions in the future... Would it really be so easy to live off of $200,000 for 5 years? That's the truth for the majority.

[InsideOut]

Come up with all the excuses you want, there are very few valid reasons to go broke. There are even less reasons when you start out making hundreds of thousands or millions and then go bankrupt. Blowing all your cash on cars and houses isn't a valid reason...financial one-upmanship just proves you're an idiot.

By the age of 13 we all know if you spend more money than you make you go broke. How come an NBA player, who's a grown adult, not figure out that if he retires with 2 million but spends 1 million a year, that he will be broke in another year? If you're in the NBA for only two years and walk away with $500,000 then it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out you better get a job. These guys are all given talks on how to save their money and think ahead. If they choose to ignore it and blow it all the only excuse I can think of is stupidity. I guess one exception I can think of is they hire a crook as a financial advisor. However, that would happen if you get references and you never give all your cash to just one guy. You also keep a million in the bank for just in case. While I'm sure there are a few guys that ran into bad luck, my guess is the vast majority never got a job and just kept living the lifestyle even though they could no longer afford it. They did it to them selves and that is just sad.

[Hard2dhole]

How to be a financial adisor in a NBA Baller's posse: Everytime he's about to do something costly and stupid, smack him in the head and say "don't be a dumb****". Than charge him a 1000.00 each time.

[penbeast0]

The problem is most reasonable people could take $400K and buy two homes for cash, renovate them, and rent them out to establish monthly income.

Damn, what state do you live in? In South Florida, $400K gets you a nice townhouse.

[TheOUTLAW]

I seriously doubt the majority are broke, but I could see that alot might be bankrupt because they owe more than they have in assets.

[kellex]

I seriously doubt the majority are broke, but I could see that alot might be bankrupt because they owe more than they have in assets.

isnt bankrupt and broke the same thing? well pretty close anyway...

[Cevap]

-= original quote snipped =-



Damn, what state do you live in? In South Florida, $400K gets you a nice townhouse.

fly over states

[Buck You]

Well these guys have no idea how to handle having so much money and they probably don't hire accountants and god forbid they get another job so they just keep spending and spending and spending till it all goes away.

[dingclancy]

Imagine Shaq being broke after 5 years with his long list of expenses then watch the Lakers win titles at during Shaq's couch prime?