The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that on Monday a Milwaukee area home owned by former NBA player Latrell Sprewell has been foreclosed on. Sprewell, a former Knicks star and Milwaukee native, failed to make payments on the home, which resulted in the foreclosure. This is not the first of Spree’s assets to be seized, as he lost his 70-foot yacht, “Milwaukee’s Best,” in Jaunuary.
Remember that Sprewell is the same guy who in 2004 turned down a 3-year $21 million contract offer from the Minnesota Timberwolves, claiming, “I need to feed my family. That’s not going to cut it.” Keep in mind that this is a guy who, according to Basketball-Reference.com, had career earnings of over $96 million in 13 NBA seasons, making $14 million in his final season with the Wolves. Now he’s bankrupt. Ouch. This gives some teeth to Tim Sharobem’s post a few months back about NBA players having financial difficulty once they are out of the league.
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Filed under: NBA - Knicks, Writer - Bill Slattery
It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy…
As much as the American public seems to get some kind of sick joy out of seeing rich, famous people fall from grace, I can’t help but pity Spreewell and others like him. I can’t imagine what type of advice they are getting that would cause such massive piles of money to vanish.
Perhaps more telling than the advice they are getting, is the advice they aren’t getting. Was there no one in Spreewell’s life who suggested putting some money away for his post-playing days? While there is a part of me that has trouble feeling too sorry for him, without knowing the whole situation, it isn’t fair for me to jump to conclusions about his irresponsibility.
Unfortunately Dan, what has transpired with Sprewell happens all too often, especially with NBA players.
There are a lot of problems involved…and this is definitely something that professional sports leagues should investigate. (I am aware that the NFL does an instructional camp for rookies to talk about threats from fans, temptations off the field, etc.)
Bottom line, professional sports make the youngest millionaires over any other venture. With youth and prosperity, come a lot of mistakes. Unfortunately, they are HUGE mistakes…
Is the NFL the only league that does this? I am shocked that the NBA doesn’t (if in fact, they don’t)
I am going to do a bit of research on this.
[...] Happy Birthday to Jimmie Rodgers, Sid Caser, Peter Sellers, L.C. Greenwood, Mark Foley, Maurice Cheeks, Pink, Wali Lundy, Matt Barkley and the Big Apple’s poorest former athlete, Latrell Sprewell [...]
[...] Happy Birthday to Jimmie Rodgers, Sid Caser, Peter Sellers, L.C. Greenwood, Mark Foley, Maurice Cheeks, Amani Toomer, Pink, Wali Lundy, Matt Barkley and the Big Apple’s poorest former athlete, Latrell Sprewell [...]