I paid that for one car. I always tell guys about that and how it depreciated. I also had some very expensive homes.
And when the money is no longer coming in, the upkeep on those expensive homes is a problem. I also had a jewelry fetish. I try to tell them some of the things I learned the hard way. Another issue for Walker was turning down requests from his family and friends.
I obviously wanted to help her and my siblings and get them out of that lifestyle. It was a word that I never really used. When I played, I was very generous to my family and friends, but you have to find a balance. You have to hold them accountable.
I never tell guys to turn their back on their family and friends. Those are the people who supported you your entire life, taken care of you and helped you get to this point. With that said, we want to make sure guys keep the giving under control because that can be a big part of your downfall if it gets out of hand. You hear about so many athletes who go broke after leaving professional sports and a lot of us are ashamed or embarrassed about it.
A lot of athletes are surprised to hear that, but they should know how much a professional athlete loses to taxes! It just shows this program is definitely needed. While Walker is a pro at giving these presentations now, there was a time early on when it was difficult for him to discuss that low point in his life.
There was a point when it was difficult to talk about, but once I helped shape the curriculum for the financial education program and realized that my story could be a powerful learning tool for others, it became much easier to discuss.
In , a year-old Shaquille O'Neal signed his first professional contract, officially becoming a millionaire. O'Neal also paid off his mother's house and began doing "what all the homeboys do — gotta buy rings and diamonds and earrings and this and that," he told Business Insider.
That served as the wake-up call O'Neal needed to become more careful and get his spending on track. At least in part, though, "it was well worth it. As the No. The basketball star signed a lucrative sneaker deal with Nike on top of that. A friend in Chicago created a real estate company, and I became a part of it.
The first three years were great: We were buying a bunch of properties. We got caught in the [real estate crash] of and borrowed a lot of money through banks. I was the personal guarantor, which was the biggest no-no. Listen to free podcasts to get the info you need to solve business challenges! Because when the [crisis] hit, I was on the hook to pay that money back.
I was still a young man with the potential to earn money, and I wanted a fresh start to pretty much start my life over. But the following year, you reportedly pleaded guilty to giving bad checks to three casinos to pay large gambling debts. Is that so? I never wrote a check. When you have a credit line at a casino, your bank account is attached.
So when the casino tried to get their money back, they went to an account that was no longer open. It looked like I wrote a bad check, but I never wrote them a check. I went to court and took a payment plan with them. I think it played a huge part in me not getting back into the NBA.
It happened at the same time I was going through the real estate situation. I tried for three years, but I was never able to get back into the League. It was a lot of negative press. The downfall, the mistake that I made, was being the personal guarantor of the real estate company and putting up my personal financial portfolio in order to get these loans and this money.
After spending over two years in bankruptcy, Walker was given a new lease on life, announcing in that he was debt free. In addition to working as an analyst for SEC Network and Sports, Walker serves as a consultant to Morgan Stanley Global Sports and Entertainment , where he in helped launch a financial education program designed to steer young athletes down the proper path and prevent them from falling victim to the pitfalls he faced when he entered the NBA.
As he travels across the country to share his cautionary tale, Walker says his goal is to "make a really negative story into a positive story.
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