In 2008, the NBA Players’ Association claimed that 60 percent of pro basketball players go broke within five years of retirement. It’s not hard to see why. In the annals of “easy come, easy go,” few people see it come and go like professional athletes.
While it’s true that many take their salaries and invest them in sensible and enduring business ventures, many others squander their multimillion-dollar salaries on expensive cars, jewelry and mansions, and when the checks stop coming in, they have little to show for it.

http://walau2u.blogspot.com/2011/04/bankrupt-stars-athletes-who-lost-it-all.html

In 2008, the NBA Players’ Association claimed that 60 percent of pro basketball players go broke within five years of retirement. It’s not hard to see why. In the annals of “easy come, easy go,” few people see it come and go like professional athletes.
While it’s true that many take their salaries and invest them in sensible and enduring business ventures, many others squander their multimillion-dollar salaries on expensive cars, jewelry and mansions, and when the checks stop coming in, they have little to show for it.

http://walau2u.blogspot.com/2011/04/bankrupt-stars-athletes-who-lost-it-all.html
In Basketball more than any other sport there are players who grew up in very poor homes who suddenly find themselves making very large paychecks and not knowing how to handle it. I think all NBA rookies should be required to take a course in money management. In fact all pro sports should do this. The players should know and understand exactly what's happening with their money rather than blindly trusting an agent or manager.

In Basketball more than any other sport there are players who grew up in very poor homes who suddenly find themselves making very large paychecks and not knowing how to handle it. I think all NBA rookies should be required to take a course in money management. In fact all pro sports should do this. The players should know and understand exactly what's happening with their money rather than blindly trusting an agent or manager.thats a great idea

I think that players do go through some financial counseling (provided by their teams), but I don't really know how extensive it is. But apparently a lot of them sit through these things thinking "yeah, yeah, here I am making over a million bucks a year and THIS guy's gonna tell ME how to run my life?".

And I'm sure a lot of them make all kinds of plans on how they're going to spend the money, only to find out that what they're bringing home isn't nearly what they thought it would be, because they had no idea what their tax liability would be. I know a lot of people don't think "the rich" pay taxes, but they most certainly do.

Over the years, there have been a lot of veteran players who will try to take the young guys under their wing and stress to them that the money doesn't go on forever. Some rookies will listen, many more will not.

But besides the expensive cars, jewelry and mansions, too many players get talking into giving money away to their "friends"...the guys they grew up with... and if they refuse to "help" their old buddies, they're accused of "not keeping it real".

Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley are two guys in particular who always told the younger players "look, you have different responsibilities now. You can't be hanging out on the street corners with your friends any more.. you can see them now and then, help them out a little if you want to, but you've got to move on."

Too many guys either try to impress their friends with how much they can give away, or as I said, they're "shamed " into it be being accused of not keeping it real. "You've CHANGED, man!"

I'm not surprised to hear about this because most black NBA players come from the ghetto and they grew up poor. So when they become NBA players, they get a lot of money and they don't know how to handle it. They know nothing about saving and spending their money wisely. Too many of them spend their money on jewelry, cars(extra things to go on or in the cars like rims, tv's, speakers, tinted windows), houses, women, alcohol, drugs. I'm not saying that you shouldn't spend money on cars and houses because you need those things but you don't have to spend a lot of money on them. They mess around with a bunch of stuck up, materialistic women and they have kids by them. When they break up with the women that they have kids by, they end up having to pay child support and they get pissed about that. Stop getting these women pregnant and you won't have to pay child support LOL. It's hard for men to stop having sex. So they need to stop complaining about these women trying to get their money because you can't get cute women without money LOL.

Here you go Brad Russ.