Former Seattle Sonic loses home to foreclosure, refuses to leave

[rsmith6621]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Former-Sonic-Robert-Swift-loses-home-to-foreclose-but-refuses-to-leave-192433591.html


SEATTLE -- Former Seattle Sonic Robert Swift made a reported $20 million during his NBA career, but things haven't gone as well for the first-round draft pick in recent years.

Swift lost his home to foreclosure, but apparently refuses to leave.

"And it seems like a very sad story and I definitely feel for him," said the new owner, who wanted to hide her identity.

She thought she knew what she was getting when she bought the foreclosed home in January.

Cans of beer dot the grass outside the home. A bullet hole pierced the garage window at some point.

"Cars that don't look like they've moved in a long time," she noted.

[liberal_economist]

1. sucks for him

He needs to leave, it isnt his home and it never technically was. The new owner should just have him arrested for trespassing.

But 20million? Lol

[dballance]

2. I Feel Bad For Him. I Have a Question Though.

Why don't the teams that sign these people right out of college to multi-million dollar contracts make them get a financial advisor? This sort of story is popping up more and more. In the best interest of the player and in the interest of not tarnishing the team's brand/name they should give them some guidance on how to handle all this sudden cash-flow.

[Blue_Tires]

3. Most players do have financial advisors; they are just crooks...

[Spike89]

4. And, it is a lot of money, but it isn't all theirs

Of course these guys don't have established tax shelters, so they often pay the highest rate. Even before that, they give a big percentage to their agent, plenty goes to the financial advisors (even when they aren't cheating them), and of course these guys are really young and immediately rich, so they live a pretty high-cost lifestyle.

Additionally, lots of these guys are supporting sometimes extensive families/entourages. Hard to tell a lower/middle class kid that signs a $20 million contract that he can't buy his Mom a nice house, but after all is said and done, that $20 million over a 10-year career means he was almost certainly bringing in less than $1 million a year after taxes, agents, advisors, etc. Many of these guys also invested in stocks and expensive houses, both of which crashed in value at some point. A lot of them "invest" in their friends and family members and there often isn't any payback from them.

Finally, sadly most of these athletes simply don't have earning power once their careers are over. Most don't even have a college degree (in the NBA). So, they end their careers with a massively expensive lifestyle that they can't sustain for long.