Former Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson has reportedly gone from 11-time NBA all-star to financial deadbeat.
According to a report by USA Today, Iverson, 36, was recently ordered by a Georgia judge to pay off a $860,000 debt he owed at a jewelery store. The problem is, A.I. – who earned roughly $154 million in salary alone over the course of his 14 year NBA career – didn’t have the cash to pay the jeweler, so the judge has ordered his bank accounts seized and his earnings garnished.
“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.
Sadly, Iverson isn’t the only NBA player to go from rags to riches to rags again. 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.
So how exactly did Allen Iverson blow through $154 million dollars (not including endorsements) in such a short amount of time?
According to Rantsports, the Georgetown prodigy spent money like it was going out of style.
Besides his penchant for expensive jewelry (A.I. was frequently seen wearing a platinum pendant made in the shape of a ‘3’ with 63 diamonds embedded on it), Iverson brought his posse – a group of as many as 50 people which included childhood friends, a hairstylist, and tattoo artist – along with him on all 76ers road trips and other excursions.
When asked why he paid out to keep all the hangers-on in tow, Philly.com says Iverson explained:
“They made me.”
He meant they had protected him from all of the casual violence, especially in the early days, allowing him to get where he was. Literally, they kept him alive. And Iverson felt he owed them.
With his wealth apparently gone, CBS reports Allen Iverson might be headed to play basketball in anywhere from Puerto Rico to Iran to the Philippines in order to pay his bills.
via USA Today