Despite $100 Million NBA Earnings, Lou Williams Faced Distressing Reality Check of Penniless Future

NBA stars going broke after their retirement is not something new. In fact, a report by Sports Illustrated in 2009 mentioned that 60% of NBA players faced serious financial hardships after retirement. While that condition has improved in the years since, there are still cases of financial struggle post-playing days. Sharing his experience on similar lines was 3x Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams appearing on an episode of his Underground Lounge podcast. The ex-Philadelphia 76ers star expressed what post-retirement life does to a player’s finances.

He stated how the money is coming in fast during the career and there is no one giving out real numbers. “You feel like this sh*t is gonna be forever. It was a culture shock to me the first week I didn’t get a big check from being retired, where it was like, oh, I gotta figure this sh*t out,” Lou Williams stated on the podcast. He further spotlighted how players usually go broke after 5 years of retirement.

Notably, Williams made approximately $100 million from his NBA earnings. The former Sixers star explained how what half of a player makes disappears quicker than one can imagine. He stated agent fees, dues for the MVPA, personal staff, financial advisor, mansions, girlfriends, and expenditures to be some of the contributing factors. “Before you know it, you not a millionaire no more… You a high thousandaire on paper,” Lou said.

The 37-year-old further recollected his spending habits, like the time he bought a Ferrari and a Lamborghini in the same week. Even his financial advisor had told him it was not a wise decision. However, the regular incoming cash and the urge to enjoy some of it did not let him stop. “But that’s how athletes go broke… It ain’t that we got reckless spending habits. We just got crazy overhead. And once the checks stop, it gets completely different,” Lou Williams stated on the Podcast.

Apart from Lou Williams, there are big names like Allen Iverson and Dennis Rodman, who suffered a similar fate in terms of post retirement life. In fact, as per a CNBC report from 2018, 60-65% of NBA players go broke within the first five years of retirement.

Why some NBA stars lose it all after retirement?

One of the primary reasons for this can be the fact that most players have a short earning window. The players are supposed to earn what can sustain them for life during this short period. And though this short earning window usually earns a significant fortune for the players, it also involves a lavish lifestyle and over-expenditure in most cases. The incoming money reduces drastically once retirement life hits, but the expenditures become harder to control.

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Yet another reason for NBA stars going broke post-retirement can be the lack of financial literacy among the young players. Most of the players who enter the NBA scenario lack the prior experience of handling such huge amounts of money that they earn in the league. This lack of financial literacy leads to another cause of financial suffering, i.e., poor investments and ventures.

However, this problem can be easier to solve than it seems. With the right financial planning and a post-retirement plan, which most players seem to lack, the players can escape from going broke, if not retain millions of dollars.

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