Former NBA Star Antoine Walker Broke and In Trouble

At one point it seemed like everything was working out for Antoine Walker. At 22 he had just signed a 6 year $71 million dollar contract to play for the Boston Celtics. The city loved him and he seemed destined for greatness. He was young, rich, playing the game he loved and he was sure going to enjoy it.

His playing career from that point on can be classified as solid, but unfulfilled. He did make the all-star team 3 times, and won an NBA championship with the Miami Heat in 2005-06. However, he was always seen as someone with a whole lot of talent, who just didn’t really work as hard as he needed to. This lackadaisical attitude seems to have carried into his financial sense as well, and now he seems to be paying the price.

Antonie Walker finds himself now at 33 years old, without an NBA team, saddled with a host of legal problems, and being pursued by creditors for money that he does not have. Quite a fall for the guy that signed that big contract after leaving the University of Kentucky after his sophmore year and a National Championship.

Walker made over $110 million dollars during his playing career, but that it seems was not enough for the kind of lifestyle that he chose to live. I know often times that it can seem like the gravy train will never end, but for professional athletes it does a lot sooner than most folks. That’s why for athletes having sound financial planning is so important. The leagues do their best to stress it, but some people just don’t get the message.

The Boston Globe has an excellent article entitled “For Walker, Financial Fouls Mount” that details the troubling situation that the former star finds himself in.In the article, Shira Springer goes into the seemingly endless parade of creditors and financial difficulties that surround Walker these days.

The first sign of trouble happened early this summer when Walker was arrested at Harrah’s Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada for writing 10 bad checks at casino’s around town totaling over $1 million. Now these weren’t exactly checks in the classical sense, they were casino markers. In Vegas if you sign a casino marker and don’t pay it back in the allotted time, it’s considered check fraud. Walker is known to be a fairly heavy gambler and tales of him playing $15,000 hands with Michael Jordan have circulated for years. Who knows how much of his money was wasted through gambling, but I’d estimate that its a fairly substantial portion.

Walker has a court date today to face these check fraud charges out in Las Vegas so we’ll see how that plays itself out. According to a representative for the Clark County district attorney’s office, Walker has made no move to pay the markers off or otherwise settle the case. These are no small charges either as each one of them carry a 1 to 4 year prison term. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there.

A Globe review found that, during the last seven months, Walker has been pursued by multiple financial institutions for unpaid debts totaling more than $4 million. Court documents filed in Illinois and Florida reveal Walker was named a defendant in three recent debt-related civil cases, in addition to the ongoing check-kiting case. His former agent is also after him, citing a heap of unpaid fees.

“I know Antoine has enjoyed himself,’’ said a former teammate. “He had a good time, as all professionals who are in that situation should. But there’s tough lessons you learn about the responsibilities that come with being a professional athlete that makes a lot of money. Sometimes this is one of the consequences to that.’’

He is not currently signed to an NBA team and with the season just having gotten underway this week, prospects do not seem good. Playing in Europe might be a viable option and do not be surprised if you see him sign with a European team sometime soon.

This summer J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Wachovia Bank, and American Express Centurion Bank won decisions against Walker. He was ordered to pay J.P. Morgan Chase $1,571,771.47 and Wachovia $1,540,929.14 – both for failing to pay off sizeable promissory notes. From court documents, the loans appear originally related to Walker’s nonbasketball business endeavors.

Some people might wonder how someone could blow through so much money so fast? However, its not really all that uncommon with pro athletes these days. Especially someone like Walker who lived the same way he played; brash and without a care in the world. Expensive cars, jewelry, and lavish homes were things that Walker surrounded himself with. He also had quite an entourage and those things do get expensive.

Walker’s situation is one that shows just how imperative it is for pro athletes to have good financial planners around them. People that did not grow up with a lot of money have no idea what to do when they are instantly given these kinds of contracts. Often times they waste money on lavish material goods and surround themselves with bad people who are as naive as themselves when it comes to how to plan your life out financially. There is no reason that an NBA player shouldn’t be able to live their whole life off of those kinds of earnings from their playing days.

If some good can come out of Walker’s situation hopefully it can serve as an example to younger players in a similar situation to what he was blessed with 10 years ago. The league does mandate a type of financial seminar for its rookies, and this case will be one that will most likely be alluded to often in those classes. For Walker it may be too late.

With these debts mounting and mounting and criminal charges pending while his playing career seems to be basically over, it does not seem like Walker will ever be able to escape this mountain of debt that he has accumulated. When playing Walker always used to show off his patented wiggle after a made three pointer, this situation though is going to be hard to wiggle out of.