15 athletes who went broke

[Redondo]

15 athletes who went broke

[arch stanton]

Dykstra was a teammate of mine on the 1975 East Garden Grove Mustangs of the Junior All American Football League. He was an excellent athlete and probably the most intense preteen kid I've ever encountered. As I followed his career I always assumed he would flame out. No way he would fade quietly into retirement.

 

Among all these guys the overriding theme is trusting someone else to care as much about your money and future as you do. Always a bad idea. 

[Bruce Nye]

And that is just a partial listing.  I have a close friend who played in the NBA.  When he quit playing the 76ers GM asked him to talk to their rookies about deferring their signing bonus and doing some smart things with their money.  I accompanied him when we met these guys - not just 76er players.

 

We might as well have been yelling out the window on a car on the 110 freeway driving 80 mph.

 

These guys wanted to buy a car, take care of momma and their posse.  You could see bankruptcy about to happen years before it really occurred.

[gotbeer]

The amount of money these 15 lost, could have been an easy comfortable retirement ($4 million each) for the 318 members that logged in today on AW.com.  Don't feel sorry for them at all.

[Wallerrrr]

pistachio farms sound like a brilliant way to invest money

 

 

suprised jose canseco didnt make this list of awesomeness

[HaloCory22]

I'm surprised ex wives didn't come up more than it did.

[Ray McKigney]

There is a good documentary that was on ESPN called "Broke" about this subject. Interesting to see how these guys lose their fortunes.

[mancini79]

Cecil Fielder made close to $50mil in salary. All of it gone by divorce and a gambling addiction. He then stole $200K from Prince's signing bonus when he was 18. 

[Richard]

Latrell "I can't feed my family making 7 million a year for 3 years" Sprewell

[Ray McKigney]

Cecil Fielder made close to $50mil in salary. All of it gone by divorce and a gambling addiction. He then stole $200K from Prince's signing bonus when he was 18. 

 

Just money Prince would have spent on snack food over the following few months anyway.

[Blarg]

How come I have a feeling Kazmir's return to the majors is related to this story.

[katie]

Cromartie will end up on that list with his 12 kids and 8 baby mamas

[Wallerrrr]

Cromartie will end up on that list with his 12 kids and 8 baby mamas

 

lol..true dat

[nate]

So much money, just brutal.

[Tank]

"Three-time All-Star player Lenny Dykstra, and his omnipresent wad of chewing tobacco, won the 1986 World Series. However, by 2011 he had lost about $50 million. In 2008, he began a high-end jet charter company and a magazine offering financial advice to athletes.

In 2009, he filed for bankruptcy, and in 2011 he was indicted on charges of car theft and drug possession. His legal troubles didn't end there. In Aug. 2011, he was charged with allegedly exposing himself to women he met on Craiglist."

 

i guess the magazine wasn't such a good idea afterall.

 

DR, good thing dykstra wasn't the one who put in the ad for long toss.

[St1ck]

Latrell "I can't feed my family making 7 million a year for 3 years" Sprewell

 

 

Turns out he was correct. He can't feed his family with millions of dollars. 

[nate]

Spreewell used to come into my Gamestop with a posse and buy PSP games and movies.  He would drop like 500 dollars a week on video games.

 

He and his posse all wore polo shirts that said Spreewell on them.

[Wallerrrr]

notice no asians on the list...they now how to budget!

[St1ck]

notice no asians on the list...they now how to budget!

 

 

 

Plus ping pong, and competitive video game playing doesn't pay that well. 

[mrwicked]

schillings is terrible.

its so easy to get VC money these days. putting your own life savings into a game company is a pretty bad investment strategy.

[Ray McKigney]

notice no asians on the list...they now how to budget!

 

No Jews on the list either. Oh wait, there are no Jewish athletes.

[AZMike]

What I don't get about a lot of these guys listed, as well as a lot of the lotto winners etc. is let's say you have a $50M lump sum (be it life savings from baseball or a lotto payment) -- why not keep just keep 10% of that ($5M) in assorted banks and low-risk mutual funds as a fall-back, and only invest 90% of your money instead of 100% in the dicey high risk/reward business ventures? That way worst case you still have more than enough money in reserve to maintain a decent living for many years without having to work.

 

I don't get why someone not living paycheck to paycheck wouldn't keep a comfortable buffer of cash or other liquid assets in case of just such an outcome. 

[nate]

No Jews on the list either. Oh wait, there are no Jewish athletes.

Youkilis and Braun beg to differ.

[mrwicked]

What I don't get about a lot of these guys listed, as well as a lot of the lotto winners etc. is let's say you have a $50M lump sum (be it life savings from baseball or a lotto payment) -- why not keep just keep 10% of that ($5M) in assorted banks and low-risk mutual funds as a fall-back, and only invest 90% of your money instead of 100% in the dicey high risk/reward business ventures? That way worst case you still have more than enough money in reserve to maintain a decent living for many years without having to work.

 

I don't get why someone not living paycheck to paycheck wouldn't keep a comfortable buffer of cash or other liquid assets in case of just such an outcome. 

 

because a) these are mostly poor inner city kids who are now flush with legit wealth overnight, b ) they assume its going to keep coming in forever, c) they are surrounded by leaches the second they show abnormal talent, etc etc etc.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Latrell "I can't feed my family making 7 million a year for 3 years" Sprewell

 

When he made that statement one of the local radio stations took off with it, doing a spoof of the ads you see begging for money to feed kids in third world countries. "For only $44,000 per day, you can help feed Latrell Sprewell's family."