Hall of Fail: How to Blow $110 Million by Antoine Walker

Posted by By Sports Session at 4 June, at 10 : 59 AM Print

There have been man recurring themes lately dealing with famous people going broke, from the average persons point of view they are not able to comprehend or understand why this happens.  If people analyzed their own personal lives it would be very easy to see how this can happen, typically when a normal person gets a raise or increase in income they adjust their lives to this new income level.  For pro athletes actors and actresses it is no different there is just more money available to them to burn.

In 12 years, former NBA player Antoine Walker made more than $110 million playing professional basketball moderately well.  Account for taxes, and add a few Adidas endorsements, and an EA Sports NBA Live 99′ video game cover, and he probably has about $70 million to toss around.  During the last several months, Walker has been pursued by multiple financial institutions for unpaid debts.  It is estimated that Walker owes more than $4 million to his creditors and is facing felony check fraud charges in Las Vegas.  The 33 year old walker owed money to a Las Vegas casino for a marker extended to him, and he bounced a check he wrote to pay the debt knowing he did not have that much money available.

The average person still is in disbelief, but if you look at how Walker blew his money it is very easy to see where the money went.  Walker had a problem telling people no, as he played in the NBA he traveled with a large entourage of people.  Not only did he have an entourage of 10 or so people, but as with most people family members start to come around asking for money with all sorts of life or death problems.  Walker told them yes I can help you, and before you know it he was supporting somewhere around 70 friends and family members financially in some form.

There is a fair amount of stupidity involved int his as well, as with most people who come into money Walker wanted to do something for his mother.  He built her a mansion in the suburbs of Chicago which has an indoor pool, 10 bathroom, and to top it off a full-size basketball court.  Why in the world would you build such a huge place for your mother when she is not going to use most of the amenities that you are including with the house, then with a house that size it has to be maintained and that means housekeeping staff, lawn maintenance, and pest control among other things.  I am sure Walker’s mother would have been quite happy with a mansion that had only five bathroom, and no basketball court, it was a ridiculous waste of money.

Living at the Bishops Forest condominium complex in Waltham during the Celtics season, Walker turned the pavement surrounding his home into a virtual luxury car lot — two Bentleys, two Mercedes, a Range Rover, a Cadillac Escalade, a bright red Hummer. Often, the vehicles were tricked out with custom paint jobs, rims, and sound systems at considerable added expense. He also collected top-line watches — Rolexes and diamond-encrusted Cartiers.”

Condos, luxury cars, watches I guess that’ll eventually force you into bankruptcy. Especially when you’re not investing your money smartly, Walker was also a majority owner of a set of condos in Chicago.  The units have had issues that need to be fixed, and there were problems with the property before Walker ever invested his money.  It was just bad decision after bad decision for Walker, and he is paying the price today.

The difference between this situation and other similar ones, is that Walker’s lavish lifestyle wasn’t all me-me-me.  He was also a generous friend and teammate who had custom suits made for coaches, routinely picked up giant team dinner tabs, and when there were funds to spare, gave to underprivileged youngsters. He was basically spending money as if it were a never ending well, I think he looked in the bank and told himself there is no way he could ever spend that much money.

Well he did, and now he is attempting to pay his creditors back by playing in a Puerto Rican basketball league for $150,000 a year.  Good money for most people, but not for a guy who is millions of dollars in debt and past the prime of his career.  Sorry Antoine, welcome to the Hall!

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