CJ McCollum estimates 1/3 of players live paycheck to paycheck

[Dupp]

Young, dumb and full of ...

[azcatz11]

I mean, probably the same amount of people on here do too.

How many of you have 3-4 month of expenses in your bank?

This. People don't need loads of bathrooms, central air, giant kitchens, pools, new cars, dope lawnmowers, electric chainsaws, those projector that put ghosts on your house for halloween, grass, really grass is useless, cable, flat screens. A lot of the U.S. is living paycheck to paycheck. The attitude just looks a lot stranger when you watch somebody burn through a six figure paycheck.

Big example: Mitsubishi Mirage. It's a little car designed for Southeast Asia. Mitsubishi has been trying to sell them over here. It's got room for four passengers, a big hatch, fold down seats, safety features, backup cameras, a touchscreen, great fuel economy, a cvt, good reliability, and it's cheap to maintain. Nobody buys them. If your neighbor gets a heavy duty truck, lifts it, and decks it out with chrome and bedliner, a lot of folks feel like, "How the hell am I gonna park a little Vietnamese-market hatchback next to that?" NBA guys are making that decision on bigger scale. When they're parking between a Ferrari and an Aston Martin, they're thinking, "How the hell am I gonna park this dumb work truck between a bunch of supercars?"

I thought of this line from Lil' Wayne from way back that says something along the lines of, "I got 10 bathrooms, I can **** all day!"

Steady Mobbin...a cautionary tale

[Swish1906]

Dirk is probably spending right now a paycheck he earned in 2004

[brutalitops]

I’ve always thought a lot of these guys problems is trying to “take care of too many people” and taxes, more than living lavishly.

8m turns into about 6m in some states. Then agents 10% turns into 5.4M. Still obscene but you have your lebrons, Kevin loves ect. Who make 30m a seasn, they probably wont go broke.

You have guys who are on 8/10m. Agents dont really care too much about them over the bigger stars, probably getting very ignorant advice from people and being fooled. Easy to go from a 2y 8m contract. Having 5.4 mkllion Suddenly 2 bad investments and after taxes you have 3.3m. Lifestyle you may fool yourself into thinkong your a multi millionaire when reality you're not rich.

Average span of NBA players isnt 10 years, 60m earned.

[Metallikid]

Hard to feel bad for people making 6 and 7 figures living paycheque to paycheque. That's a choice. They might be young but it's not like they don't have parents or can't afford a financial advisor. If you fail to plan you plan to fail.

I feel bad for the people living paycheque to paycheque who work three jobs and 50 hours a week. They don't have a choice.

[MrBigShot]

Big part of it is that I'm sure quite a few players pay for everything for their family & entourage.

[Scalabrine]

Surprised it isnt more really. A lot of people are like that; NBA players are no different.

"A lot of people" dont make 8 million dollars per year (average NBA salary).

[OfficialRef]

I'm surprised, the majority of them have financial advisors, no? I'd assume at least a decent amount (80%) would listen to them.

I find this rather hard to believe 1/3 sounds too extreme.

[Duke4life831]

Honestly it's not surprising. Handing millions of dollars to 19-22 year olds with a ton of free time isn't going to end well for lots of people. Then you factor in the amount of these guys that come from households that are below or near the poverty level. That is a really horrible combination when it comes to the hopes of people spending money wisely.

With that said I feel no sympathy for the ones in that situation. Let's assume the 1/3 of players being talked about are full time NBA players (not 2 way players).

So we have rookie minimums at 900k, about 2 mil for 5 years in and 2.5 mil for 10 year vets. Let's just take 60% away from each (taxes and agents fees). So we are looking about 460k minimum for a rookie, 800k for a 5 year vet 1 mil for a 10 year vet.

Most rookies are 19-22 years old. There is no scenario where im going to feel sympathy for a 19-22 year old taking home 460k a year and somehow still living paycheck to paycheck. That is just dumb spending to get into that scenario.

But it's really not shocking though once you hear some stories, watch some docs or look at these guys social media. You will find late 1st and 2nd pick rookies who are driving around multiple 100k+ cars. That's just cars, who knows what they're spending on where they're living, what they're wearing, what vacations they go on and everything else.

[dhsilv2]

I always wonder who goes to these clubs and spend 1k on a bottle of fancy ethanol. That's a great way of blowing through money without anything to show for it.

These guys would have to be spending 10k a day.

not that i spent 1k often on alcohol or ever at a club...but nothing wrong with a nice collection of spirits.

[HoustonCougars]

Damn I can only imagine the epidemic is way worst in the NFL, where the average contract if you're not a qb is alot lower and career span is significantly worst.

[TimRobbins]

This means that the NBA/NBPA is failing. There needs to be a lot more forced savings for these players.

[lakerz12]

This is a bit shocking. The average salary is almost $8M. I would say, however, that giving anyone that much money, in any walk of life, that early would result in a similar situation...

Honestly it's kind of silly to make excuses. Only an idiot could blow through $8 million they can't afford to lose.

[dorkestra]

This means that the NBA/NBPA is failing. There needs to be a lot more forced savings for these players.

Out of curiosity what do you mean by forced savings? Like taking out additional percentage of players salary and requiring it to be in a retirement account?

I think the NBA is already looking at things like helping to improve financial literacy. Not sure on specifics though. It would seem like that would be something the NBPA would have more control over than NBA.

[Sark]

I mean, probably the same amount of people on here do too.

How many of you have 3-4 month of expenses in your bank?

Probably a lot more. I'd say it's probably at least 75%.

The difference is that very few, if any, have seen the type of money that athletes make. Making 6 figures is pretty good for most people, but that pales in comparison to basketball players that make 7 or 8 figure salaries.

[Roco14]

The part that does surprise me is how easily some of these guys can part with their money. I mean many of them grew up broke and not knowing when their next meal would come - you'd think that would mean they would place even more value on their money but I guess not.

We also have to consider that CJ might be overestimating these numbers. 1/3 seems like a lot.

[dockingsched]

1/3 isn’t really that big of a number. Bet that’s the amount of players playing on minimum deals that have only been in the league a handful of years, who probably spent their career earnings on taking care of their parents and family before looking to start their savings.

[dockingsched]

The part that does surprise me is how easily some of these guys can part with their money. I mean many of them grew up broke and not knowing when their next meal would come - you'd think that would mean they would place even more value on their money but I guess not.

Don’t underestimate the desire to want to ensure your family is no longer in debt, working back breaking jobs, living in a home that belongs to someone else, and putting your own financial stability on the back burner to ensure you take care of those around you.

[Sofia]

I always wonder who goes to these clubs and spend 1k on a bottle of fancy ethanol. That's a great way of blowing through money without anything to show for it.

These guys would have to be spending 10k a day.

A litre of ethanol blend and a box of tic tacs is like $3 here. These guys are just being silly.

[monopoman]

People act like every player in the NBA is getting at least $15-20 million before taxes even if we only count full time players and not 2 way contracts, I bet the vast majority of players out there make under $3 million a season before taxes.

That is a great deal of money, but it's not like the vast majority of NBA players have insane money. I also will point out it's extremely easy to fall into representation of a level of living there are $350k a year Doctors out there that spend that much each year easily. They have to have the nice car, nice house, nice clothes etc... that **** adds up quick.