http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201202/allen-iverson-has-no-answer-financial-woes
“The Philadelphia 76ers icon was recently ordered to pay over $860,000 to a jeweler, and he couldn’t cut a check.”
No comment…
Wow
I knew AI was having money troubles. He was playing somewhere overseas for relative peanuts and is apparently considering an offer to play in Puerto Rico. I seem to remember him having an Italian sportscar towed not that long ago and he couldn’t pay the fine and impound fees so he just left it there.
I really can’t decide if I feel sorry for athletes who blow through their millions or not.
I read an article awhile back that many NFL/NBA players are either bankrupt or near bankrupt within 3 years of retiring.
As my man Chris Rock said, you need to be wealthy, not rich. Far too many homies try to be ‘rich’ when they are not and waste all their money on Jesus Pieces and Rims (dey spinnin’ nigga!).
the same can be said about Terrell Owens as well. The bum is now playing in the arena football league and has reportedly squandered over $72 million.
look on the bright side, at least they’re not hoarding their cash…
I like Frank’s joke!! 
its true though. imagine all these ppl hoarding their cash in gold bullion.
they help create jobs at luxury retailers, automotive industry, nike, mcd, interest payments at your favourite big bank etc.
we need more ppl like them.
one day i’m gong to get a Jesus piece, except its going to have Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger on it instead.
^word.
How can a jewlry store garnish one’s wages? I know the IRS can (back taxes), the state can (child support), but private businesses?
If he owe’s the jewler money, isn’t the only recourse to repo the bling?
you think floyd mayweather will go broke one day too?
The jewelry store cannot garnish wages. They can, however, sue you and potentially get the court to garnish your wages.
I bet he has an Escalade on dubs. He coulda gotten from point A to B just fine in a Suburban, Yukon, etc.
An old buddy of mine played in the NBA for eight years. Wasn’t a superstar by any means, but did well enough. It took him exactly two years to blow all his money. Now he’s just surviving until his pension kicks in. At least he’s fully vested…
It was a sight to watch him blow through all his cash though. Spending hundreds of thousands a month with pretty much nothing to show for it. Pretty amazing actually.
If only he’d hoarded gold bullion.
^ Do tell. Where did his money go? I’ve read an article about this long ago, but it’s enlightening to hear it from a personal account.
i’m happy to hear he blew through all his money…good for the economy…
Not that awesome of a story…depressing really. First off, most people overlook the difference between gross and net pay with these guys. My buddy wasn’t a big name and he still had an agent, manager, and lawyer that all took a percent of his gross pay.
He sent several thousand a month to his mom and grandma who promptly spent it (to be fair, his gma was better about saving). And, he paid the mother of his two kids $15k a month (not court mandated). Then there were his parasitic friends that drained his resources too. You start doing the math and you can see for a guy that made about $1.1mm a year (salary), there’s a surprisingly little left over. And then there’s the mortgage.
Despite the fact he wasn’t good about saving his money he did happen to get lucky on a few deals. He had a home in LA that he sold in 2006 at the height of the market. He bought a few fast food franchises that worked out well.
Still, there was the jewelry, cars, clothing (amazingly expensive habit), trips, etc…About a year after he quit the league he started selling off his franchises to sustain his lifestyle. Too bad too. He had five of them; enough to easily live off of.
Anyway, that’s that. There wasn’t anything like drugs or gambling. It was just complete financial mismanagement. He had a good FA, but it’s hard to keep someone’s money from them when they demand it.
Pretty typical story for retired NBA players.
AI made *a lot* of money though. His career earnings are over $150k. Even if we assume most of that is lost to taxes, fees, and unsrupulous persons, he must have had at least several tens of millions of dollars to blow. He’s a perfect example of a financially unsophisticated person who comes into sudden great wealth, leading to irresponsible lifestyle choices.
Ohai, I believe you quoted your own career earnings in your post above
Broke, the documentary that brings ESPN’s outstanding “30 For 30” back tonight, begins with this pair of statistics, courtesy of Sports Illustrated: “By the time they have been retired for two years, 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress; within five years of retirement, an estimated 60 percent of former NBA players are broke.”
The mission of Broke, directed by Billy Corben, is to explore the factors — and there are a bunch — that lead to professional athletes, widely known for their very high salaries, to have such a dismal record when it comes to post-career financial security. Nothing more than a collection of talking-head interviews with former players and a few other experts in finance and sports, the film starts with the obvious.
^ Saw that on ESPN. The most bizarre thing to me on it was the Balleralert thing. That really threw me off.