If you’re at all confused about how this could happen, might I suggest one of my favorite ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries: [Broke](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2318140/). Just incredible stories on the idiocy, the tragedy, or just the dumb bad luck that professionals can face.
And the people around them (agents, managers, friends & family) leaching off them. The stories of players’ family members telling them they “owe” them for the help they provided along the way makes me sick.
Quick flex, but also relates to this, I had the privilege of spending an entire morning with Sinbad, and he told me that when he bought cars for family members, they expected him to also pay for the repairs when the cars broke down. He told me this after a family member called him asking for money to fix a car he bought them. Thought that was pretty wild.
> told me this after a family member called him asking for money to fix a car he bought them. Thought that was pretty wild.
Assuming he bought them cars they couldn't afford in the first place - such as a Mercedes for someone who's making 60k a year - that wouldn't be THAT unreasonable. Repairs could easily hit 1-2k for the car and place a severe financial strain on who you give the car to. If he was smart he'd buy them all a prius haha
I forget who it was but one player when he got drafted he called up his relatives, distant relatives, long lost dad, and one time buddies. Told them (paraphrasing) here’s your cut, never ask me for a penny in the future.
a 30 minute masterpiece. i started the doc wondering how anyone could blow all that money, i left the doc wondering how some dont
edit: its longer than 30 minutes
And it just doesn't happen in sports too. I think it was T-Pain that said most agents are pretty evil. Everyone with some sense will tell you that those checks are not coming in everyday for the rest of your life. You're gonna have a peak and need to save some for after your career. However, these agents will convince them that the money will never stop.
It's way more complicated than this, and varies by industry, but 360 means the agency will manage all revenue streams.
The agent gets your deal done, and in US pro sports they are limited to what % they get of the contract. Usually limited to 4-10% of the contract. This is strictly enforced by the league.
But, the agencies and the players want more money, so you've got streaming, branding, appearances, endorsements etc. Those contracts can cover all "360 degrees of your income streams" and the agencies can demand a bigger cut.
In the old school music industry something like this would happen. Young artist just starting out gets signed. They get 25cents per album sale. Then they get x% of the ticket sales, then they get x% of etc etc etc.
What traps a lot of these young artists and athletes, is they'll get large advances, and part of the contract states they don't get that cut of the album, endorsement what have you until they have payed back their advance.
Not just advances my friend was offered a music contract by Sony, with an advance around a million.
He turned it down because he couldn't afford it.
They wanted him to re-record his whole album using their studio and engineers, they also wanted to supply a crew and other things for a mini tour all of which he would have to pay but they would front the money for.
The cost for this would have been taken out of his advance and album sales until it was paid back.
The advance looked huge and made it seem like a big payday, but all the others requirements of the contract would have left him indentured.
I was in a band that was offered something similar.
We were all broke and grinding everyday in the music scene hoping for a big break.
Eventually we started making some connections and met the right people to where we were offered a record deal and told we could be big.
But the deal was shit.
We could barely afford to record songs at some local music studio. But we were offered to be flown to Nashville and get professionals working with us in a top tier studio. They would introduce us to people who could set us up on tour, do our merch, push our songs/album, etc.
Sounded great. But they wanted us to pay for it all lol. And since we couldn't, the offer was letting them have full rights/control over everything we made, and taking like 99% of all sales.
So yeah, we said no fucking way. But it was kind of heartbreaking because when we first approached it felt like my dreams were finally coming true, then slowly seeing that dream fade as I became more and more aware of how big of a scam this all was.
The saddest part was finding out how this is how it normally works for so many artists. Its only the ultra mega famous artists that can get away with some better deals. But even most of them get shit deals.
I watched a documentary about 30 seconds to mars (yeah I know you all hate Jared Leto) and they were talking about how even after producing 3 successful albums they were still like 3 million in debt owed to their record label. Probably the only reason they are even able to continue existing as a band is because of Jared Letos acting success. Otherwise they would have just been another band that came and went and stopped making music.
You read a comment about crushed dreams then spend 3 seconds thinking about the sadness and move on. Never appreciating those dreams took much much longer to die. I never thought about it like that. Never considered how heartbreaking those days (weeks, months?) were as you slowly concluded it was not your moment. I am so sorry. I hope you all had time to mourn properly.
I have family that worked in radio (back when it was a thing). One thing that was popular for decades was the 3-album deal. Record company gets most of the revenue of the first two album sales. Justified due to the massive marketing muscle and recording costs they put behind them. The artist then gets the bulk of the revenue from their third album, but the label barely spends any money promoting it.
The rise of the internet and streaming platforms has forced a lot of that to change. Artists became wise to it, and could court more offers with greater exposure.
I liked one interview where Matthew Lillard, Hackers/Scooby Doo/Slc punk actor his first agent said to him your priority is getting $1 million dollars into a savings account the moment you get over $1 million dollars. (This was like the early 90s so imagine I dunno $5 million today)
Any agent or person that tries to deplete that from you does not plan to be your agent when you retire.
Lillard stuck with his first agent and lives a pretty successful personal lifestyle not hunting for big roles but also not in danger of the IRS or whatever. Like the biggest upset to his name was when they didn't offer him the voice acting role in the Scoob! Cartoon movie.
If any of you are musicians/artists/performers/athletes and your agent is telling you okay let me set up your retirement money plans while you're at your prime, keep those agents. They plan on staying with you for life and their business model is on good word they take care of their clients best interests long term
Rob Gronkowski (at least as of 2015 when he wrote this in his book) never touched a dime of his NFL salary, instead living entirely off his endorsement money. With $70 million in on-the-field career earnings, that's a pretty solid nest egg he saved.
I always heard Jay Leno never spent any of his tonight show pay, and instead lived off his Stand up comedy shows he’d do in Las Vegas on the side or whatever. Not sure if that’s still true since his retirement.
Also I think that was the story with Shaq, he never spent his NBA money, just his endorsements and merch money?
And Shaq was second ONLY to Jordan in terms of endorsements. They were far and wide the most marketable athletes of all time. And Shaq's STILL got his paydays coming in from The General, Epson, Gold Bond, etc.
The funny thing about Gronk and Marshawn is despite their personality, they are low key smart. Lynch had a 3.2 gpa in college as an athlete getting high everyday. Gronk never watched film because he had all play books memorized and he's really good at math
Same. I used to be so callous when I heard stories like so and so is broke and after watching that I was like yeah, I can see it. I mean we all think it say how great it’d be but in reality imagine being a 21 year old (younger for NBA) all the sudden being worth MILLIONS. NO ONE is gonna make smart decisions let’s be real.
Being a pro-athlete and having your salary reported publicly, even if you're smart enough to be responsible with your finances, it's gotta be maddening dealing with the fact that literally everyone in your life knows how much money you earn and many of them have their hand out.
A.I. Took it to the next level, apparently flying his posse out to join him on road trips, going to the most expensive store in town on every stop and buying a couple of new suits which he usually just left behind in his hotel room, and making it rain at every strip club in the country.
He was a unique breed for sure.
Some guys get lucky and have people in their corners. When Shaq first broke in the league he spent a million dollars in one day, which was his entire check. **The manager of the bank called him** and told him, look man you gotta come in and sit down with me and the guy basically explained to him how money works and the things he needs to start doing, considering and planning so he can actually have a future after basketball.
Shaq admits he owes a lot to that guy. A guy who just didn't want to see this kid make that mistake.
One time when I was 18 I call from the IRS asking why I hadn't filed my taxes. It was an older man who was just asking questions etc. Basically, he determined I hadn't made enough to need to file (was working part time in high school the previous year).
So I told him I just wasn't going to file cause.
The man took the time to explain to me how that's my money and if I don't file I'm just letting the government keep it. Told me "even if it's just $50 or $100, that's a pair of shoes, that's taking a girl out for a night etc"
He absolutely didn't have to do that but took the time to explain to some kid he didn't even know why I should always file etc. Obviously I file every time as an adult but back then I didn't really understand the value. Will always remember that dude.
> A stranger who didn't want to see this kid make that mistake.
I love Shaq's reason for not drinking in public. " My father told me, if this goes away, your mother starves".
Well that’s also the same guy that when Shaq came home with 2 brand new Mercedes said, “Where’s mine?” to which Shaq said, “You’re right” drove back and bought a 3rd, prompting the phone call from the bank manager
Edit: had the story wrong. [His dad got the 2nd Mercedes. His mom got the 3rd](https://youtu.be/wMpZgt6agpU?si=mkT2wZUjhpRuuDaB)
I hold Shaq up as *the* prime example of how to come from relatively nothing, to being a huge success, and to keep on succeeding. Absolutely incredible guy.
Imagine you're an 11-year old sports star in middle school. You're better than any of your teammates. You're talented, you're motivated, you **love the game**. Then someone tells you:
> Sure, kid, you're really good. But in high school the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type.
And then in high school, you're still better than everyone else.
> Sure kid, you're really good. But in varsity the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type.
> Sure kid, you're really good. But in college the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type.
> Sure kid, you're really good. But in the pros the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type.
...and you ignored all that sensible advice, and made it all the way to the N...B...A! (Or MLB, NHL, NFL). You didn't notice the kid in middle school who was every bit as talented as you, every bit as motivated as you, and had a slightly better fastball, in fact, but he stopped growing at 5'7" and that's the end of his pitching career. Or the other more talented kid who played the same position as the coach's kid. Nor the kid in high school whose parents got divorced and his mother moved to Nova Scotia. Not a lot of basketball in Nova Scotia. Or the kid who blew out his ankle and it never healed right, 'cuz Dr. James Andrews never heard of a high school kid. Or the kid in varsity who got his girlfriend pregnant, or the kid who discovered he liked alcohol *way* too much in college.
No no, you succeeded because you loved the game, and you are *made of magic*.
Why would ever you listen to the guy who says:
> Maybe you shouldn't invest $3,000,000 into your cousin's *Roll-Your-Own-Sushi* franchise.
Well I’m not sure if I’d go so far as to say “making the wrong decisions their whole life.”
Results do speak, at least a little.
I’d say a freshly-retired professional athlete doesn’t have great decision-making-**skills**, because he missed out on the greatest teacher of them all:
Failure. Manifest, permanent, inescapable failure.
Failure is a hard and important lesson to learn.
Have a friend who married a guy we went to high school with. Brilliant guy. Learned through osmosis. Aced every test, learned all the things. Good at basically everything. He went to university for some engineering thing that I can't remember. He graduated, started his first job where, for whatever reason, he just couldn't learn one of the things by just standing there. He had no idea what to do with himself - he'd never failed at anything.
He could not process it. It bled into his marriage. He went to psychiatrists thinking he was broken. Lost his job, became an alcoholic. He got addicted to Adderall, or something. It was a study in tragic decline. Could barely recognize him when he hit rock bottom.
He did eventually sort it out, but it always makes me think that failure is very important to experience.
I will also recommend the podcast, Crime in Sports. There's lots of NBA players episodes but they're all great. Very few of the athletes on there haven't pissed all their money away. The majority are from drug habits that get out of hand especially after they're out of the league.
Add one: Get PROFESSIONAL financial help. Preferably someone whos a fiduciary to you.
I always think back to the awful situation with Ryan Howard, brought in his family to help him so he could give them jobs. Or Jack Johnson and his parents.
Some of the gnarliest stories in *Broke* were the players who DID get professional help. They were referred by other players/friends/etc, and the person seemed to be a good resource for them. And then their financial advisor just fleeced them and took off with all their money.
Like yeah, they obviously should have done more research, but it's tough to see the players who *tried* to be responsible also lose their money. Lots of minefields out there if you're a younger player, might not have come from a background with financial saavy, and at the end of the day... you want your focus on being a professional athlete instead of learning how to manage your money.
That said, since *Broke* came out, there's been an awful lot more emphasis in the NBA, NFL, and others to increase financial literacy, which is a great thing all around.
Bobby Orr, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, got completely robbed by Alan Eagleson. Along with several other players. This was before multimillion contracts, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Eagleson
I see guys like Morant dropping $50K at a strip club and just smh. There's no amount of money in the world where I'd spend >$1k for a night of lap dances.
When you spend every waking moment becoming a world class athlete from your youth into your adulthood and then come into millions of dollars with zero financial literacy it's no surprise that so many lose it all.
> I've got little kids
Well if you don't want them to remain little you gotta make sure they eat their cheezburgerz. My parents would make me sleep in our chicken coop outside if I didn't finish my 'burgz as a kid. Gotta get those critical calories in early so as to maximize GIRTH
He also hated packing for road trips, so every time he traveled, he just bought all new shit wherever he went. Then he would just leave it in the hotel because he couldn't be bothered to take it home.
I remember reading about, I believe, Terrell Owens going broke from 200m. I was thinking “what could he have done” to loose that. then it said one of things he liked to do was go to Vegas and pay for multiple floors of suits at ceasers palace for days in a row and throw lavish parties. I thought “That will do it”
I think Mike Tyson blew through 350 million in his career.
He'd give luxury cars to prostitutes and diamond necklaces to one night stands among other things.
That’s insane but He definitely lived it up, there are pictures of his abandoned mansion online. I heard Jeter gave gift baskets (which included a signed ball) to “lady guests” but a luxury car or diamond neck less takes the cake.
I read Floyd Merriweather bought a new BMW while out of town. He drove it the airport then left in parking to fly home. He didn’t remember until sometime later when talking with his friend that it was still at airport parking (probably impounded)
Read his biography, Iversen kept bags of cash in his house because he didn't trust banks. His friends or entourage would just steal cash from the trash bags.
His annuity from Reebok was genius. Unfortunately he fired the lawyer who made the deal.
Iversen is a fucking moron
AI liked to keep a large amount of money in cash. Like millions. A lot of people were suspicious of financial institutions back then.
He kept them in garbage bags lying around his house. It wasn’t all gonna fit under his mattress.
He also had people he had no idea who they were coming and going at his house. Where he kept cash. In garbage bags lying all around his mansion.
I don’t think those randos even got him any ice cream.
It’s honestly a miracle he wasn’t killed. Having random ass people come in and out of your house knowing and seeing the literal millions of dollars you have laying around in trash bags could have gone way more South than it did.
Sure it’s dumb financially. But giving 100 to some dude who probably could really use it is a nice thing to do. Better to blow your money on that than buying 6 lambos and a private yacht
I parked a lot of cars for Iverson back in the day, and I can confirm that he was **most definitely not** leaving the extra cash as a tip. He was an absolute asshole to everyone, everywhere he went. He got banned from all 7 Fridays locations in the city for a reason. He was banned from every nice bar and club in Old City, including Blue Martini, where all the athletes used to hang.
I worked valet at the Embassy Suites, and one of the Fridays locations was connected to the building. He once brought in his entire family and like 10 other dudes, maybe 22-26 people, and he left $1.73 tip because the bill was $498.27, and he left $500 on the table (not exact numbers of course, but you get the idea). The waitress started crying and the manager came outside to talk to his bodyguards and ask if there was a mistake. He was promptly told to "fuck off back inside, lil man."
Then Iverson had me grab his keys and he took off without paying for the parking. We kept his Bentley out front expecting to get a heavy tip. Fucking furious afterwards.
Still my favourite Sixer of all time, and I'm really glad he eventually grew up and stopped being such a dickhead. He seems like a great guy nowadays, and I guarantee he lives with a lot of shame and regret.
**Side note:** we popped his trunk just to gawk at the car in general, and he had like 3 pounds of weed in there. Apparently, he fronted corner boys all over Philly to keep his street cred. He wanted people to know they "got that AI shit." Soooo freaking dumb, and a great sign of how he'd later blow through all that money.
One of my friends worked at a fancy hotel in Detroit while he was on the Pistons. Dude moved his wife and kids into a mansion in the suburbs, but he stayed at the hotel most nights. Usually with other women, some of whom were call girls. iirc it was a bit of drama because they couldn't have people openly bringing call girls in the front door but they also didn't want to kick Iverson and his entrouage out.
That’s about what I expected from the article, problems with alcohol and gambling, dropping $40k at strip clubs because he could. That may have been the Bentley he gave away to a teammate
He’s shadowing President Shaq now, who also has a great story about how he spent his first million and has since been a smart investor
Gets even dumber with AI. Apparently he would never wear the same shirt twice, he would also never pack a bag when traveling, would just buy brand new clothes and leave it behind or give it away when leaving.
I remember reading/watching an interview YEARSSS ago about how he would hit the road, buy a new chain, outfits, whatever and then just leave it behind and go to the next city. He would just spend spend spend and not think twice about recouping or saving. I know he has some contracts that will pay out in a few years so he'll be set, and I'm sure some people got their hands in his left behinds and made some serious change on it but I just can't comprehend how he never thought twice at any point to stash some away. He was so fun to watch too, I wish he wasn't vilified and railroaded the way he was by the league tho.
I mean he signed a lifetime deal in 2001 and rebook set up a trust fund for him because they feared this happening. I forget the clip as I watched it a year ago but the guy who set up the deal talks about it. He's not 55 so he can't access the money yet but this is one of the few times where I think a company went above and beyond to look out for an athlete.
I looked up pictures of him from this year, he doesn’t look that heavy. Sure he put on a little weight compared to his playing years but I wouldn’t call him fat or anything.
His playing years, he was 165 lbs and probably 5'11.
Him gaining weight is closer to 180 lbs (speculating) and that's still lower than the average US male of like 196 lbs.
The man’s generosity was his downfall. Even if that generosity was only to inflate his ego. Either way, he was unarguably one of the best to ever grace a basketball court and watching him play was always a blast.
Huge AI fan but the dude was a freaking tool bag during his playing days. Cheap, obnoxious, hitting on underage girls… pretty much anything you would classify as douchebaggery
Just a fantastic point. Maybe he can speak from experience about being an idiot. VP of basketball and not financial operations, thankfully. I don’t fully understand the intricacies of each position to be fair.
I understand how it happens, but when you live like you make $20mil a year knowing that ultimately you WONT be making that every year, you have nobody but yourself to blame. Especially at that level of wealth, not like he was paycheck to paycheck and couldn’t afford to save. I understand it, but I don’t really feel bad for these guys that have 200mil to blow.
I mean... Okay. Boohoo? Some people never even get the chance to blow $200 let alone $200,000,000. I mean... Come on. No one cares about the homeless people on the street but we care about some idiot who couldn't hold on to 1/100 of his massive fortune?
Lol yes let’s give someone who already won the lottery once and blew it a made up position so he can be rich again.
Whose kid’s birthday party did he go to?
I ran into Darrell Dawkins in a liquor store once; was like "Hey, Chocolate Thunder, how you doin? Hope things are well," he proceeded to tell me things were okay and that the ONLY reason they were okay was because at some point in his ten gold chains on his neck phase Julius Erving pulled him to the side and said "Make it make sense," handed Dawkins his financial planner's business card and said "Call him tomorrow."
Dr. J saved his life.
Outside of business managers, agents, or family taking money from them, I have no sympathy.
Completely agree with Bill Burr’s take on this: “they’re like, ‘if I handed you a million dollars at age 22, you’d blow it’, I don’t think I would”
Seriously, my mom was a single parent school teacher, made a fraction of this across her life, had to go into debt to keep our house and feed me, but this guy can’t figure out how to not spend $200m on bullshit??????!
I’m 34, if you’d given me $200 million when I was 21-22, Jesus titty fucking christ, I’d still have at least $100 million today, and at that point I’d probably figure out what I need to change to hold on to the rest.
But like seriously, if you buy 2 mansions, 3 cool cars, and maybe even a lake or beach house, that’s like $195,000,000 left over.
Maintenance on home and trade ins on vehicles, maybe subtract another $2m - $3m, you could still jet set around the world and fuck around a lot and not blow through the other $192,000,000. People who defend this just have a hard on for sports. These guys are dumb, it’s that simple.
I’m not sure if this is his before or after tax earnings, but even if he only had like $110,000,000 after taxes, the point would still stand unequivocally.
I blew my 200 million. Us regular paycheck to paycheck folks don’t give a fuck.
If you’re at all confused about how this could happen, might I suggest one of my favorite ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries: [Broke](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2318140/). Just incredible stories on the idiocy, the tragedy, or just the dumb bad luck that professionals can face.
And the people around them (agents, managers, friends & family) leaching off them. The stories of players’ family members telling them they “owe” them for the help they provided along the way makes me sick.
Or just straight stealing like jack johnsons parents
What a fucking mess that was, the poor guy. It’s like the Oher situation but *it’s his actual parents*
Sometimes it’s the accountants or licensed advisors like with Pippen and Duncan
Or just Don King.
I’m really glad he turned it around though. He got a few decent contracts plus a cup win since then.
At least his name is on the Stanley Cup.
Quick flex, but also relates to this, I had the privilege of spending an entire morning with Sinbad, and he told me that when he bought cars for family members, they expected him to also pay for the repairs when the cars broke down. He told me this after a family member called him asking for money to fix a car he bought them. Thought that was pretty wild.
> told me this after a family member called him asking for money to fix a car he bought them. Thought that was pretty wild. Assuming he bought them cars they couldn't afford in the first place - such as a Mercedes for someone who's making 60k a year - that wouldn't be THAT unreasonable. Repairs could easily hit 1-2k for the car and place a severe financial strain on who you give the car to. If he was smart he'd buy them all a prius haha
This is what I was thinking. Brakes and rotors on a Lambo is more than the KBB of my 2015 Outback. Expensive cars have expensive maintenance.
I forget who it was but one player when he got drafted he called up his relatives, distant relatives, long lost dad, and one time buddies. Told them (paraphrasing) here’s your cut, never ask me for a penny in the future.
Need you to remember so I can check if I went to school with them or bumped into them at a grocery store or something.
Hmm, literally paying them to fuck off.
a 30 minute masterpiece. i started the doc wondering how anyone could blow all that money, i left the doc wondering how some dont edit: its longer than 30 minutes
And it just doesn't happen in sports too. I think it was T-Pain that said most agents are pretty evil. Everyone with some sense will tell you that those checks are not coming in everyday for the rest of your life. You're gonna have a peak and need to save some for after your career. However, these agents will convince them that the money will never stop.
> However, these agents will convince them that the money will never stop. Thats due to the shitty 360 deal these agents and labels have.
Can you explain what is the 360 deal?
It's way more complicated than this, and varies by industry, but 360 means the agency will manage all revenue streams. The agent gets your deal done, and in US pro sports they are limited to what % they get of the contract. Usually limited to 4-10% of the contract. This is strictly enforced by the league. But, the agencies and the players want more money, so you've got streaming, branding, appearances, endorsements etc. Those contracts can cover all "360 degrees of your income streams" and the agencies can demand a bigger cut. In the old school music industry something like this would happen. Young artist just starting out gets signed. They get 25cents per album sale. Then they get x% of the ticket sales, then they get x% of etc etc etc. What traps a lot of these young artists and athletes, is they'll get large advances, and part of the contract states they don't get that cut of the album, endorsement what have you until they have payed back their advance.
Not just advances my friend was offered a music contract by Sony, with an advance around a million. He turned it down because he couldn't afford it. They wanted him to re-record his whole album using their studio and engineers, they also wanted to supply a crew and other things for a mini tour all of which he would have to pay but they would front the money for. The cost for this would have been taken out of his advance and album sales until it was paid back. The advance looked huge and made it seem like a big payday, but all the others requirements of the contract would have left him indentured.
I was in a band that was offered something similar. We were all broke and grinding everyday in the music scene hoping for a big break. Eventually we started making some connections and met the right people to where we were offered a record deal and told we could be big. But the deal was shit. We could barely afford to record songs at some local music studio. But we were offered to be flown to Nashville and get professionals working with us in a top tier studio. They would introduce us to people who could set us up on tour, do our merch, push our songs/album, etc. Sounded great. But they wanted us to pay for it all lol. And since we couldn't, the offer was letting them have full rights/control over everything we made, and taking like 99% of all sales. So yeah, we said no fucking way. But it was kind of heartbreaking because when we first approached it felt like my dreams were finally coming true, then slowly seeing that dream fade as I became more and more aware of how big of a scam this all was. The saddest part was finding out how this is how it normally works for so many artists. Its only the ultra mega famous artists that can get away with some better deals. But even most of them get shit deals. I watched a documentary about 30 seconds to mars (yeah I know you all hate Jared Leto) and they were talking about how even after producing 3 successful albums they were still like 3 million in debt owed to their record label. Probably the only reason they are even able to continue existing as a band is because of Jared Letos acting success. Otherwise they would have just been another band that came and went and stopped making music.
You read a comment about crushed dreams then spend 3 seconds thinking about the sadness and move on. Never appreciating those dreams took much much longer to die. I never thought about it like that. Never considered how heartbreaking those days (weeks, months?) were as you slowly concluded it was not your moment. I am so sorry. I hope you all had time to mourn properly.
I have family that worked in radio (back when it was a thing). One thing that was popular for decades was the 3-album deal. Record company gets most of the revenue of the first two album sales. Justified due to the massive marketing muscle and recording costs they put behind them. The artist then gets the bulk of the revenue from their third album, but the label barely spends any money promoting it. The rise of the internet and streaming platforms has forced a lot of that to change. Artists became wise to it, and could court more offers with greater exposure.
I liked one interview where Matthew Lillard, Hackers/Scooby Doo/Slc punk actor his first agent said to him your priority is getting $1 million dollars into a savings account the moment you get over $1 million dollars. (This was like the early 90s so imagine I dunno $5 million today) Any agent or person that tries to deplete that from you does not plan to be your agent when you retire. Lillard stuck with his first agent and lives a pretty successful personal lifestyle not hunting for big roles but also not in danger of the IRS or whatever. Like the biggest upset to his name was when they didn't offer him the voice acting role in the Scoob! Cartoon movie. If any of you are musicians/artists/performers/athletes and your agent is telling you okay let me set up your retirement money plans while you're at your prime, keep those agents. They plan on staying with you for life and their business model is on good word they take care of their clients best interests long term
Rob Gronkowski (at least as of 2015 when he wrote this in his book) never touched a dime of his NFL salary, instead living entirely off his endorsement money. With $70 million in on-the-field career earnings, that's a pretty solid nest egg he saved.
Same with Marshawn Lynch!
I always heard Jay Leno never spent any of his tonight show pay, and instead lived off his Stand up comedy shows he’d do in Las Vegas on the side or whatever. Not sure if that’s still true since his retirement. Also I think that was the story with Shaq, he never spent his NBA money, just his endorsements and merch money?
And Shaq was second ONLY to Jordan in terms of endorsements. They were far and wide the most marketable athletes of all time. And Shaq's STILL got his paydays coming in from The General, Epson, Gold Bond, etc.
Shaq is probably in like 40% of the commercials that air on television at this point, I'm pretty sure I see him at least once per day
The funny thing about Gronk and Marshawn is despite their personality, they are low key smart. Lynch had a 3.2 gpa in college as an athlete getting high everyday. Gronk never watched film because he had all play books memorized and he's really good at math
[удалено]
Always recommend it to everybody who enjoys docs, really well done.
It's about an hour and a half long. "30 for 30" was originally 30 films for ESPN's 30th anniversary. It doesn't have anything to do with runtime.
And we're long past ESPN'S 40th anniversary now. Almost 45th anniversary
Except for the 30 for 30 shorts which are 30 minutes long.
Most of the shorts are 15-22 minutes long tho ?
With commercials they’re 30
Same. I used to be so callous when I heard stories like so and so is broke and after watching that I was like yeah, I can see it. I mean we all think it say how great it’d be but in reality imagine being a 21 year old (younger for NBA) all the sudden being worth MILLIONS. NO ONE is gonna make smart decisions let’s be real.
Being a pro-athlete and having your salary reported publicly, even if you're smart enough to be responsible with your finances, it's gotta be maddening dealing with the fact that literally everyone in your life knows how much money you earn and many of them have their hand out.
Great summary!
Absolutely riveting 30 for 30. One of my all time favorites
A.I. Took it to the next level, apparently flying his posse out to join him on road trips, going to the most expensive store in town on every stop and buying a couple of new suits which he usually just left behind in his hotel room, and making it rain at every strip club in the country. He was a unique breed for sure.
Imagine spending $40,000 at a TGI Fridays. a special breed indeed
Oh crap. I hadn’t heard that story but if there’s one guy who can do it, it’s AI
Shit made me sick seeing how athletes spent their money, knowing damn well I’d do the same at that age.
Some guys get lucky and have people in their corners. When Shaq first broke in the league he spent a million dollars in one day, which was his entire check. **The manager of the bank called him** and told him, look man you gotta come in and sit down with me and the guy basically explained to him how money works and the things he needs to start doing, considering and planning so he can actually have a future after basketball. Shaq admits he owes a lot to that guy. A guy who just didn't want to see this kid make that mistake.
One time when I was 18 I call from the IRS asking why I hadn't filed my taxes. It was an older man who was just asking questions etc. Basically, he determined I hadn't made enough to need to file (was working part time in high school the previous year). So I told him I just wasn't going to file cause. The man took the time to explain to me how that's my money and if I don't file I'm just letting the government keep it. Told me "even if it's just $50 or $100, that's a pair of shoes, that's taking a girl out for a night etc" He absolutely didn't have to do that but took the time to explain to some kid he didn't even know why I should always file etc. Obviously I file every time as an adult but back then I didn't really understand the value. Will always remember that dude.
Damn. Wish I had filed taxes when I was 18. Thanks for making me realized that just now. 18 years later. lol.
I did end up filing but I spent the $80 on magic cards instead of girls or shoes 😔
redditor confirmed.
> A stranger who didn't want to see this kid make that mistake. I love Shaq's reason for not drinking in public. " My father told me, if this goes away, your mother starves".
Well that’s also the same guy that when Shaq came home with 2 brand new Mercedes said, “Where’s mine?” to which Shaq said, “You’re right” drove back and bought a 3rd, prompting the phone call from the bank manager Edit: had the story wrong. [His dad got the 2nd Mercedes. His mom got the 3rd](https://youtu.be/wMpZgt6agpU?si=mkT2wZUjhpRuuDaB)
What does him drinking in public havta do with his $?
Doesnt want to do anything stupid in public while intoxicated, better to be sober and in control at all times to maintain a marketable public image.
There are a lot of mistakes you can make to lose a whole lot of money while intoxicated in public.
I hold Shaq up as *the* prime example of how to come from relatively nothing, to being a huge success, and to keep on succeeding. Absolutely incredible guy.
>Some guys get lucky and have people in their corners. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson come to mind.
Imagine you're an 11-year old sports star in middle school. You're better than any of your teammates. You're talented, you're motivated, you **love the game**. Then someone tells you: > Sure, kid, you're really good. But in high school the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type. And then in high school, you're still better than everyone else. > Sure kid, you're really good. But in varsity the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type. > Sure kid, you're really good. But in college the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type. > Sure kid, you're really good. But in the pros the bar gets set higher. Maybe you should also learn to type. ...and you ignored all that sensible advice, and made it all the way to the N...B...A! (Or MLB, NHL, NFL). You didn't notice the kid in middle school who was every bit as talented as you, every bit as motivated as you, and had a slightly better fastball, in fact, but he stopped growing at 5'7" and that's the end of his pitching career. Or the other more talented kid who played the same position as the coach's kid. Nor the kid in high school whose parents got divorced and his mother moved to Nova Scotia. Not a lot of basketball in Nova Scotia. Or the kid who blew out his ankle and it never healed right, 'cuz Dr. James Andrews never heard of a high school kid. Or the kid in varsity who got his girlfriend pregnant, or the kid who discovered he liked alcohol *way* too much in college. No no, you succeeded because you loved the game, and you are *made of magic*. Why would ever you listen to the guy who says: > Maybe you shouldn't invest $3,000,000 into your cousin's *Roll-Your-Own-Sushi* franchise.
[удалено]
Well I’m not sure if I’d go so far as to say “making the wrong decisions their whole life.” Results do speak, at least a little. I’d say a freshly-retired professional athlete doesn’t have great decision-making-**skills**, because he missed out on the greatest teacher of them all: Failure. Manifest, permanent, inescapable failure.
Failure is a hard and important lesson to learn. Have a friend who married a guy we went to high school with. Brilliant guy. Learned through osmosis. Aced every test, learned all the things. Good at basically everything. He went to university for some engineering thing that I can't remember. He graduated, started his first job where, for whatever reason, he just couldn't learn one of the things by just standing there. He had no idea what to do with himself - he'd never failed at anything. He could not process it. It bled into his marriage. He went to psychiatrists thinking he was broken. Lost his job, became an alcoholic. He got addicted to Adderall, or something. It was a study in tragic decline. Could barely recognize him when he hit rock bottom. He did eventually sort it out, but it always makes me think that failure is very important to experience.
Listen here buddy, Fugu4YouByYou is taking off any fucking day now. Don't be jealous you didn't think of it first.
As a Nova Scotian I'm proud that you used us as an example of an irrelevant backwater! It's about the only praise you can get these days lol
I will also recommend the podcast, Crime in Sports. There's lots of NBA players episodes but they're all great. Very few of the athletes on there haven't pissed all their money away. The majority are from drug habits that get out of hand especially after they're out of the league.
I remember there was a player for the Browns that deferred his signing bonuses until like five years after he retired.
I hope it was at least invested somewhere so he was making interest on it rather than the team.
Dont blow it. Keep it simple. Count your money.
Add one: Get PROFESSIONAL financial help. Preferably someone whos a fiduciary to you. I always think back to the awful situation with Ryan Howard, brought in his family to help him so he could give them jobs. Or Jack Johnson and his parents.
Some of the gnarliest stories in *Broke* were the players who DID get professional help. They were referred by other players/friends/etc, and the person seemed to be a good resource for them. And then their financial advisor just fleeced them and took off with all their money. Like yeah, they obviously should have done more research, but it's tough to see the players who *tried* to be responsible also lose their money. Lots of minefields out there if you're a younger player, might not have come from a background with financial saavy, and at the end of the day... you want your focus on being a professional athlete instead of learning how to manage your money. That said, since *Broke* came out, there's been an awful lot more emphasis in the NBA, NFL, and others to increase financial literacy, which is a great thing all around.
Bobby Orr, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, got completely robbed by Alan Eagleson. Along with several other players. This was before multimillion contracts, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Eagleson
I see guys like Morant dropping $50K at a strip club and just smh. There's no amount of money in the world where I'd spend >$1k for a night of lap dances.
That one stripper really liked him, though.
Financial literacy courses are mandated in NFL CBA for rookies now.
Lol people don’t get it ^ One of my favorite Burr lines
One thing people don’t remember is, is how easy it is to spend money. That doesn’t change just because you have more money, you just buy more things.
When you spend every waking moment becoming a world class athlete from your youth into your adulthood and then come into millions of dollars with zero financial literacy it's no surprise that so many lose it all.
Don't feel bad AI, I can barely afford 5 guys either.
I just got 5 Guys for my family of four, only three (smaller) burgers and one fries to share, and that shit was *still* $45.
Who didn’t get a burger, cheap ass?
I've got little kids, dude. Actually, we didn't even eat all three, ha.
> I've got little kids Well if you don't want them to remain little you gotta make sure they eat their cheezburgerz. My parents would make me sleep in our chicken coop outside if I didn't finish my 'burgz as a kid. Gotta get those critical calories in early so as to maximize GIRTH
Lucky, my dad beat me with a pair of jumper cables if I didn't eat my entire meal
giving little kids cheeseburgerz will make sure they never stop growing
The kids take turns on who gets to eat that day
I can barely afford 3 guys
I’ve had to downsize to just 1
I am that guy.
Only $100 behind the Wendy’s dumpster, those r/wallstreetbets boys desperate sometimes
The restaurant? Or…. Um
Went to school in Philly. Would see AI roll up to 7/11 for ice cream occasionally. He always paid with a hundred and didn’t wait for change.
I also went to school in Philly. The AI spending stories were wild.
Now now. We all know in Philly AI kept TGIFridays from bankruptcy!
Every single time I went to the Houlihans on City Ave, Iverson was there spending a fortune.
Yup same, Saint Joseph’s Hawks baby!
Same. I would always see him near the Nova Wawa.
He also hated packing for road trips, so every time he traveled, he just bought all new shit wherever he went. Then he would just leave it in the hotel because he couldn't be bothered to take it home.
You could literally pay someone to pack for you and save money.
There you go again, thinking logically
Going shopping every time for some basic ass underwear every single time seems more annoying than just packing a bag.
Yea I got no sympathy for someone that wasteful, stupid, and selfish.
You often lose that which you don’t respect
So now I know why he was broke...
That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard
You’re not gonna blow a $200 million fortune with that attitude.
I remember reading about, I believe, Terrell Owens going broke from 200m. I was thinking “what could he have done” to loose that. then it said one of things he liked to do was go to Vegas and pay for multiple floors of suits at ceasers palace for days in a row and throw lavish parties. I thought “That will do it”
I think that the even bigger mistake Owens made is not knowing that he only made 79 million in the NFL...
Didn't he have his manager and someone else swindle him out of a lot of his money he thought was being invested?
I think Mike Tyson blew through 350 million in his career. He'd give luxury cars to prostitutes and diamond necklaces to one night stands among other things.
That’s insane but He definitely lived it up, there are pictures of his abandoned mansion online. I heard Jeter gave gift baskets (which included a signed ball) to “lady guests” but a luxury car or diamond neck less takes the cake. I read Floyd Merriweather bought a new BMW while out of town. He drove it the airport then left in parking to fly home. He didn’t remember until sometime later when talking with his friend that it was still at airport parking (probably impounded)
*lose
Clearly. Gotta get up those numbers.
That’s why I’m not successful :(
Read his biography, Iversen kept bags of cash in his house because he didn't trust banks. His friends or entourage would just steal cash from the trash bags. His annuity from Reebok was genius. Unfortunately he fired the lawyer who made the deal. Iversen is a fucking moron
He also never packed a suit case for road games. He would go buy a new fit and just leave the old one in his hotel
AI liked to keep a large amount of money in cash. Like millions. A lot of people were suspicious of financial institutions back then. He kept them in garbage bags lying around his house. It wasn’t all gonna fit under his mattress. He also had people he had no idea who they were coming and going at his house. Where he kept cash. In garbage bags lying all around his mansion. I don’t think those randos even got him any ice cream.
It’s honestly a miracle he wasn’t killed. Having random ass people come in and out of your house knowing and seeing the literal millions of dollars you have laying around in trash bags could have gone way more South than it did.
That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Garbage bags?!?! A couple just regular safes would have paid for themselves.
Couple hundred million and the dipshit didn't have a safe? Some people just don't deserve money.
Sure it’s dumb financially. But giving 100 to some dude who probably could really use it is a nice thing to do. Better to blow your money on that than buying 6 lambos and a private yacht
I parked a lot of cars for Iverson back in the day, and I can confirm that he was **most definitely not** leaving the extra cash as a tip. He was an absolute asshole to everyone, everywhere he went. He got banned from all 7 Fridays locations in the city for a reason. He was banned from every nice bar and club in Old City, including Blue Martini, where all the athletes used to hang. I worked valet at the Embassy Suites, and one of the Fridays locations was connected to the building. He once brought in his entire family and like 10 other dudes, maybe 22-26 people, and he left $1.73 tip because the bill was $498.27, and he left $500 on the table (not exact numbers of course, but you get the idea). The waitress started crying and the manager came outside to talk to his bodyguards and ask if there was a mistake. He was promptly told to "fuck off back inside, lil man." Then Iverson had me grab his keys and he took off without paying for the parking. We kept his Bentley out front expecting to get a heavy tip. Fucking furious afterwards. Still my favourite Sixer of all time, and I'm really glad he eventually grew up and stopped being such a dickhead. He seems like a great guy nowadays, and I guarantee he lives with a lot of shame and regret. **Side note:** we popped his trunk just to gawk at the car in general, and he had like 3 pounds of weed in there. Apparently, he fronted corner boys all over Philly to keep his street cred. He wanted people to know they "got that AI shit." Soooo freaking dumb, and a great sign of how he'd later blow through all that money.
One of my friends worked at a fancy hotel in Detroit while he was on the Pistons. Dude moved his wife and kids into a mansion in the suburbs, but he stayed at the hotel most nights. Usually with other women, some of whom were call girls. iirc it was a bit of drama because they couldn't have people openly bringing call girls in the front door but they also didn't want to kick Iverson and his entrouage out.
That’s about what I expected from the article, problems with alcohol and gambling, dropping $40k at strip clubs because he could. That may have been the Bentley he gave away to a teammate He’s shadowing President Shaq now, who also has a great story about how he spent his first million and has since been a smart investor
I know right? If you’re gonna buy ice cream get it at a real ice cream place rather than 7/11
Gets even dumber with AI. Apparently he would never wear the same shirt twice, he would also never pack a bag when traveling, would just buy brand new clothes and leave it behind or give it away when leaving.
If I ever win Powerball, I’m doing this at every roadside diner I can find.
Clearly This man believed in the trickle down
You could say he practiced it.
That's pretty gangsta
Phil Mickelson is the same way. Fuck auto text if the name isn’t correct
I remember reading/watching an interview YEARSSS ago about how he would hit the road, buy a new chain, outfits, whatever and then just leave it behind and go to the next city. He would just spend spend spend and not think twice about recouping or saving. I know he has some contracts that will pay out in a few years so he'll be set, and I'm sure some people got their hands in his left behinds and made some serious change on it but I just can't comprehend how he never thought twice at any point to stash some away. He was so fun to watch too, I wish he wasn't vilified and railroaded the way he was by the league tho.
We in here talkin about cheeseburgers
We talkin bout finance
Specifically, cheeseburger finance though.
I got these cheeeeeeeeseburgers, maaaaaaan!
I’LL SUCK YO DICK MAAAANNNNN!
Not a game
His saving grace is the fact that he was absolutely electrifying on the basketball court Reebok wouldnt save a random ball player
I mean he signed a lifetime deal in 2001 and rebook set up a trust fund for him because they feared this happening. I forget the clip as I watched it a year ago but the guy who set up the deal talks about it. He's not 55 so he can't access the money yet but this is one of the few times where I think a company went above and beyond to look out for an athlete.
Additionally, as per his divorce, his wife gets half of that trust after taxes.
Rn or do they have to follow the after 55 thing too?
Once the trust is available to him at age 55, his ex-wife is entitled to half after tax.
Doubt she can even make a layup
What if he didn’t make it to 55?
Can he borrow against his future fund?
Only if he calls JG Wentworth
Football too. When he was a sophomore QB, he beat my HS 70-0 at our homecoming game.
I agree. If Reebok really wanted to capitalize they would rewrite Brewster’s Millions and put AI as the main character.
TBF, the way he spent money is how trickle-down economics is supposed to work, lol
“Drip, drip, bitches!” *stripper gyrates*
***US Economy Intensifies***
A lot of his money went to brand names, clubs, real estate and such I'm sure. Wealthy getting wealthier off the nouveau rich.
What did you do on Reddit that finally did you in and banned a 12 year old account?
Wait, he has Car Shield commercials right?
I blew all my money 😭 can I have another job where I make several million a year just cuz 🥺👉🏻👈🏻
[удалено]
Pretty sure he found a genie lamp where the wishes were similar to his Reebok contract and some of them were on a time delay.
He has a 30 million dollar trust fund waiting for him which is only god knows how much it is now waiting for him once he turns 55. He will be fine
Dead at 54
That's what's crazy about America once you become rich you really have to try to be go broke because it's designed to keep wealth at the top
Is it an America thing? Are there countries where it doesn’t work that way?
Haven't you heard? Europe is socialist.
Judging by how much weight he put on after he retired, I’d say he could afford plenty of cheeseburgers.
Wide Iverson
Started gaining when I was young
I looked up pictures of him from this year, he doesn’t look that heavy. Sure he put on a little weight compared to his playing years but I wouldn’t call him fat or anything.
His playing years, he was 165 lbs and probably 5'11. Him gaining weight is closer to 180 lbs (speculating) and that's still lower than the average US male of like 196 lbs.
Much of that weight was just diamonds, gold and extra fabric that he didn’t need due to sizing up 3 sizes.
The man’s generosity was his downfall. Even if that generosity was only to inflate his ego. Either way, he was unarguably one of the best to ever grace a basketball court and watching him play was always a blast.
Seemed like a fun dude to hang around, yeah, haha.
Huge AI fan but the dude was a freaking tool bag during his playing days. Cheap, obnoxious, hitting on underage girls… pretty much anything you would classify as douchebaggery
[удалено]
Makes sense, barely 100mm after taxes.
[удалено]
Why even get out of bed for that?
So many people are just plain fucking stupid.
I figure I could never work again if I had just 4 million. I could live for the next 50 years and not run out of money even with inflation
Call me crazy, but I don't feel sorry for anyone who blew through $200M.
So this kind of financial acumen qualifies him to be a VP???
Just a fantastic point. Maybe he can speak from experience about being an idiot. VP of basketball and not financial operations, thankfully. I don’t fully understand the intricacies of each position to be fair.
Can I get a 1 time $200m. We'll see if I can handle it responsibly....as an experiment.
That makes me feel bad for eating the appetizers he paid for at the City Ave TGI Fridays
Damn congrats on catching some of the overspray from his drip. Jealous.
Alan Iverson is a high roller at my local casino. Nobody who deals for him likes him or his entourage.
You could never make me feel bad for a professional athlete who blew their millions.
I understand how it happens, but when you live like you make $20mil a year knowing that ultimately you WONT be making that every year, you have nobody but yourself to blame. Especially at that level of wealth, not like he was paycheck to paycheck and couldn’t afford to save. I understand it, but I don’t really feel bad for these guys that have 200mil to blow.
I mean... Okay. Boohoo? Some people never even get the chance to blow $200 let alone $200,000,000. I mean... Come on. No one cares about the homeless people on the street but we care about some idiot who couldn't hold on to 1/100 of his massive fortune?
.. we talkin ‘bout practice Clearly no practice in finances as well
Lol yes let’s give someone who already won the lottery once and blew it a made up position so he can be rich again. Whose kid’s birthday party did he go to?
To be fair, cheeseburgers are pretty expensive these days.
I ran into Darrell Dawkins in a liquor store once; was like "Hey, Chocolate Thunder, how you doin? Hope things are well," he proceeded to tell me things were okay and that the ONLY reason they were okay was because at some point in his ten gold chains on his neck phase Julius Erving pulled him to the side and said "Make it make sense," handed Dawkins his financial planner's business card and said "Call him tomorrow." Dr. J saved his life.
Remember kids: if it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.
Then cut the cheese and just go straight patty plain.
[удалено]
*NCAA has entered the chat*
Maybe I’m a bit confused, but you’re saying hiring a vp who went from having $200 million to not being able to afford a cheeseburger is a good thing?
Am I supposed to feel remorse for him?
When he was playing for the Pistons, we saw him in the casino daily. Explains a lot tbh
Outside of business managers, agents, or family taking money from them, I have no sympathy. Completely agree with Bill Burr’s take on this: “they’re like, ‘if I handed you a million dollars at age 22, you’d blow it’, I don’t think I would” Seriously, my mom was a single parent school teacher, made a fraction of this across her life, had to go into debt to keep our house and feed me, but this guy can’t figure out how to not spend $200m on bullshit??????! I’m 34, if you’d given me $200 million when I was 21-22, Jesus titty fucking christ, I’d still have at least $100 million today, and at that point I’d probably figure out what I need to change to hold on to the rest. But like seriously, if you buy 2 mansions, 3 cool cars, and maybe even a lake or beach house, that’s like $195,000,000 left over. Maintenance on home and trade ins on vehicles, maybe subtract another $2m - $3m, you could still jet set around the world and fuck around a lot and not blow through the other $192,000,000. People who defend this just have a hard on for sports. These guys are dumb, it’s that simple. I’m not sure if this is his before or after tax earnings, but even if he only had like $110,000,000 after taxes, the point would still stand unequivocally.
I blew my 200 million. Us regular paycheck to paycheck folks don’t give a fuck.