How is it even possible to go from $108 million to being bankrupt? A question that can sound so intriguing and sad at the same time. Antoine Walker unfortunately had a tough road following his promising NBA career. He played for the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, then made short one year trips to Dallas, Atlanta, back to Boston for one more year, and Minnesota to finish his career off. He balled out for the Celtics, averaging 20 points a game for them, and they were pretty successful as Paul Pierce also helped them win some games. Clearly, Antoine Walker was a productive NBA hooper as he managed to make $108 million before guys like Ryan Anderson could make $80 million over a 4 year span.
He was a good player, didn't shoot the best percentages, but was able to make himself and his family a lot of money. Antoine has spoken out throughout his bankruptcy which has allowed people to gauge more information as to what really led to his bad habits. He didn't spend his money in the most ideal way as he really enjoyed buying cars, he says he had a car fetish. "I would always keep six, seven cars." He also told Sports Illustrated if he saw a car he liked in a parking lot, he would literally purchase it right there. Although, he also had helped 30 people close to him get into better situations in whatever case they may be dealing with, and he was very generous as he would give them cash all the time. He said in an interview, "I gave them whatever they wanted and spoiled them." It's incredibly sad to hear and write on his story because despite his bad financial decisions, you have to feel a different emotion hearing how generous he was during his career.
He also did get into gambling, which of course led to him losing big amounts of money. As funny as this may sound(if you have seen the MJ documentary, the Last Dance), he actually had gained his addiction for gambling when he was with the one and only, greatest player ever, Michael Jordan, and he had the audacity to say that he didn't have a problem with gambling.(That's only a joke MJ fans, I apologize.) Walker said he had gotten arrested at Lake Tahoe for gambling debt, but even he says that wasn't the reason for his major financial issues. Actually, he claims his real estate firm in Chicago was really struggling during the financial crisis in 2008. In 2010, he was forced to pay about $20 million dollars to banks which led him to file for bankruptcy.
Today, Antoine Walker is out of bankruptcy and he uses his experiences to teach others not to make the mistakes he has made in his career. "You can still enjoy your life to the fullest, but let's preserve some of that wealth for your kids- and for their kids", Antoine Walker says.
Comments