Posted on 02/16/2012 8:21:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
At one time, there was no more famous nor more sought-after basketball player than Allen Iverson. Dubbed "The Answer" to a Michael Jordan-less NBA, Iverson scored numerous record-setting deals and endorsements.
In NBA salary alone, he earned about $154 million, according to basketball-reference.com.
Now, a judge in Georgia has ordered Iverson to pay the $860,000 he apparently owes a jeweler, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The problem is, he didn't have the cash to pay the jeweler, so the judge has ordered his bank accounts commandeered and his earnings garnished.
Rumors about Iverson's insolvency began as far back as 2010, when an Inquirer reporter visited the guard in Turkey, where he was apparently playing on a two-year $4 million contract for a non-elite team.
"The 76ers' former all-everything guard is broke - by all accounts except his own - and playing here in Istanbul for a number of reasons, none of which is to become an ambassador for Turkey's solid, but often overlooked, professional league," wrote reporter Kate Fagan in November, 2010.
Iverson's financial woes are rather common among former big-earning NBA players. The NBA Players' Association reportedly reminds its rookies every year that 60 percent of NBA players go broke five years after their last basketball-related paycheck, reports The Toronto Star.
Scottie Pippen, Antoine Walker, Kenny Anderson, and Derrick Coleman are just a few of the bigger names to have had major financial woes after leaving the NBA, according to Yahoo! Sports. Even the great Julius "Dr. J" Erving reportedly has struggled with money in his post-basketball life.
Iverson fame went well beyond having the most devastating crossover dribble in NBA history, and he spent money like the superstar he was.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
No pity here. Solly Chahlie
He can fall back on his Harvard education. Oh,wait.....
How can one NOT enjoy some schadenfreude over this?
A detestable thug goes down the tubes financially. Makes me smile.
RE: He can fall back on his Harvard education. Oh,wait.....
Well, it isn’t Harvard but Iverson went to Georgetown.
I know that Jeremy Lin majored in a non flaky degree — ECONOMICS and had a GPA of 3.2.
Don’t ask me what Iverson majored in and what his GPA was because I don’t know.
Somehow, you just know this is “George Bush’s Fault!”(tm), right?
Multi-Millionaire? Warren Buffett says you want to pay MORE Taxes, to share your wealth with the parasites, Alvin?
It would be hard to feel sorry for *anyone* that goes broke on a $860,000 jewelry bill.
You spent your last million dollars on what?
He was known for having an entourage as big as 50 people. He helped popularize in the NBA the hip hop fashion sense of neck tattoos and absurdly large diamond jewelry. He traveled with a hair stylist, and spent lavishly on everyone around him.
...maybe one of his 50 “peeps” will help him? Or he can work in a tatoo parlor? Or sell his big gold dollar signs he wore around his neck? Lots of stuff!
It's not just in basketball, either. Look at professional boxing. I don't get it. Do they think their career will go one forever and they don't have to plan for when the paycheck stops? Stupid...
I think more NBA players should take notes from Jamal Mashburn. Not only has that guy not lost his NBA fortune, he’s increased it dramatically. Mashburn owns about 100 restaurant franchises (split about equally between Papa John’s Pizza and Outback Steakhouse) and owns four successful car dealerships in his home state of Kentucky.
RE: He was known for having an entourage as big as 50 people
If you win the $300 Million Powerball, you’ll suddenly have lots of friends and family you never even knew you had...
If you lose all that money somehow, all of these people suddenly disappear.
And taxpayers are still being robbed by communities, using tax money, to build playgrounds for these grossly overpaid alleged professionals.
I wonder how much he would have made if the owners had to build their own playgrounds with their own money and used what was left over for salaries.
I would not care one iota if he made $100 BILLION as long as I was not forced to pay taxes to build his playground.
To those who feel that way, just sit down, pull out your checkbook, write a check to the IRS that's big enough to clear your conscience, then STFU.
Allen Iverson was the first (and I believe only) player to leave Georgetown without playing through his eligibility during John Thompson’s reign as coach. People may have issues with Thompson, but he put a lot of resources into making sure the young men who were behind academically would be able to leave Georgetown with an earned degree in hand. Although the official lines were “pursuing career in NBA, we wish him the best, etc.,” I wonder how hard Thompson pushed to keep Iverson. He gave the kid a second chance and maybe saw that he wasn’t going to improve his decision making enough to be successful beyond regular play.
I quit watching NBA basketball the year they went to the Finals. There is no question that the NBA wanted the Iverson/Kobe match up in the finals that year and screwed the Milwaukee Bucks out of the Finals with biased officiating.
Since then I’ve taken the NBA for exactly what it is - fixed.
I've never understood why teams don't insist on putting a reasonable chunk of change right off the top into a lockbox that would pay former players a reasonable stipend. If 60% of the players in fact do go broke, one would think both the league and the players union would insist on it. It should be part of the standard contract.
Not that I expect the NBA to ever do the right thing.
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