Despite the National Basketball Association (NBA) driving millions of dollars in revenue each professional season, its athletes are met with an alarming statistic of losing nearly all of their accumulated contract earnings, and some even falling into debt post retirement.
The percentage of retired NBA players either losing majority of their money or in some cases, go bankrupt, is at 65% just five years into a player’s retirement.
In 2022, an average NBA player earned approximately $8 million for the season. Given that the average career in the NBA only lasts for at roughly 4 to 5 years, their approximate earnings would be around $30 million – $40 million lifetime.
Often the loss of this impressive sum of wealth derives from unadvised spending, (purchasing large ticket items such as luxury vehicles, jewelry, etc.), poor short-term and long-term investments, and most importantly, not planning nor protecting assets for the future using tax-free solutions.
Some notable players who have been affected by this include:
- Antoine Walker (108m dollars in earnings during 13 year career)
- Shawn Kemp (90m dollars in earnings during 14 year career)
- Vin Baker (100m dollars in earning during 13 year career)
- Latrell Sprewell (100m dollars in earnings during 13 year career)
- Allen Iverson (200m dollars earnings during 14 year career)
In an interview with Late Night host Jimmy Kimmel, Kevin Garnet (327m dollars in earnings during 21 year career), spoke about how early on during his playing career after being drafted to the NBA straight from high school, he was unfamiliar with business strategies that are available to high net-worth individuals, professional athletes included, therefore, he would cash his paychecks given to him by the organization, and store the money under his mattress.
While this example is one uncommon by nature, many high net worth individual face similar issues, with various questions on how to maintain, and protect their accumulated funds. For the full story, see below.