Brendan Haywood On Financially Busted Athletes

In his latest blog post Brendan Haywood points out some of the latest athletes to run into financial problems.

. . . I read about ex-NBA star Antoine Walker being arrested for writing a million dollars worth of bad checks to Las Vegas casinos. That article kind of caught me off guard because he was a premiere player in this league and made so much money that for him to turn around and lose it seems crazy to me. But unfortunately, this offseason, ex-pro athletes and especially ex-NBA players having financial difficulty has become a common theme. Guys such as Randy Brown and Bernie Kosar have had to file for bankruptcy and Eddy Curry, Vin Baker and Latrell Sprewell have all had homes foreclosed on.

I never, personally, considered Kosar an actual "athlete", but I guess that isn't the point here.   The point is, why does this happen?  How can athletes, and Kosar,  who pull in millions of dollars a year file for bankruptcy just a few years after their careers end?  Too bad for them that until today there was no guide advising athletes on how to manage their money.

Enter Brendan Haywood's "four keys for pro athletes to avoid going broke."

1.  Don’t Give In to Overindulgence

2. Everyone Can’t Live Like You

3. Don’t Make Bad Investments

4. Get a Prenuptial Agreement /Avoid Messy Divorces

There ya have it.  Four basic rules to save you the public humiliation of starring on a future episode "After the buzzer", an ESPN  produced"Behind the Music" type show I just invented in my head.  (Actually that's not a bad idea.  How do ya go about pitching a show to ESPN?)

If you head over to the blog you'll get explanations of these rules including how there is no need for more than 2-3 cars, jewelry isn't a good investment, there's no such thing as a can't miss opportunity, and how a prenup is like "marriage insurance."