The truth about how much money NBA players really have
While many see making it to the big leagues as meaning you’re financially set forever, a new statistic marked by essential sports may prove this not to be the case.
In today’s day and age, being a professional athlete, especially an NBA player, is usually associated with earning a great deal of money. To be specific, the average NBA player today earns roughly 7.3 million dollars a year, with the minimum annual salary being 1 million dollars. This puts the NBA player with the lowest salary in the 99.7th percentile in American salaries. With this information, many believe that making it to the NBA would mean you are financially set for life, which is a driving factor for many children across the world to aspire for the dream. However, this is not always the case. Believe it or not, 5 years after retirement, more than 60% of NBA players file for bankruptcy. A multitude of reasons are to blame for this including criminal charges, heavy fines and drug addiction. But the main reason many NBA players lose their hefty fortunes is because of their lack of financial responsibility, very similarly seen in lottery winners who also tend to lose their fortunes (Roughly 70% to be specific). This clearly exemplifies the importance of financial education regardless of career or salary. For example, let’s take a look at the 1996 NBA draft class,(A draft class is a year where they new NBA players enter the league, usually through college) regarded by many to be the best draft class in NBA history as it contains an abundance of icons including Stephon Marbury, Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, and even Kobe Bryant.
Every player named had career earnings of over 100 million dollars. This number does not include commercials or other endorsement deals such as sneaker deals. However, not all these stars maintained a hold of their money.
The first pick of the draft Allen Iverson failed to keep even 1% of his career earnings. For his career, he had earnings of roughly 200 million dollars while today his net worth stands at around 1 million. But Iverson is no average NBA player, he has impacted the game significantly through his style, has a major finals appearance, and even won the 2001 NBA Most Valuable Player award, clearly separating him from the average NBA player. Yet even he couldn’t keep a good fraction of his earnings. It got so bad that at one point he even said, “I don’t even have money for a cheeseburger.” The reason for his bank account’s drainage leads back to his poor spending habits since he wasn’t used to the access of money he had due to his poor childhood growing up in. The superstar’s monthly expenses included 10k on groceries, restaurants, and clothes each. However, this isn’t even scratching the surface of how recklessly he spent his money. For example, after he came back from the airport and had forgotten where he had parked his car, rather than trying to remember where he had parked it or searching for the vehicle, he bought a new one on the spot.
While sharing is caring, you should still try to be fiscally responsible. Iverson gave away one of his 200,000 Bentleys simply because a teammate of his admired it. Moments like these are what quickly drained his 200-million-dollar fortune. Luckily, because of his name he has access to endorsements, meaning he can still earn money. Today, however, not every NBA player is lucky enough to be as influential as Iverson.
Take former NBA player Delonte West. After going through a divorce and dealing with substance abuse, he was put into a rough zone fiscally. With career earnings of 16 million dollars, the former NBA player still managed to become homeless in 2016. Unlike Iverson, he couldn’t step into deals keeping him somewhat financially stable.
NBA players of all skill levels and contract sizes have lost their fortunes before. Almost always due to careless flaunting and spending. Spending habits expressed by these players clearly represent the importance of managing your money regardless of your career or salary
Why exactly do NBA players tend to manage their money poorly? One reason is due to media influences on young children. Before entering the NBA, many young players have often seen their favorite players drive the best cars, travel on private jets and live in lavish mansions. This gives the newly entering rookies a feeling of excitement as they feel entitled to these luxuries as quickly as possible, leading them to spend recklessly without taking a look at their finances. Additionally, they tend to give a lot of their money away as seen by Iverson who donated his Bently to a friend without a second thought. This is due to the fact that many people in the lives of these athletes potentially see their success as an opportunity to use them, leading to these players to often be manipulated to share their success with those who either don’t deserve it or need it. While it’s important to always give back to your community, you should be careful of who you let into your life after success as many people would simply want these NBA players to give them money.
Everyone, especially people entering the workforce, should learn from the mistakes of these NBA players. No one should ever let the satisfaction of certain luxuries blind you from the importance of managing your money. Clearly, if these athletes had been more patient with their spending, understood when people were using them, and spent their money at a slower pace, they would most likely have significantly more in their bank account today.
