Athletes are not like most normal people. Most of us work our entire lives in hopes of landing a good enough job that pays the bills. Athletes train for physical competition. That type of training to become an elite athlete takes a countless amount of hours, which leaves very little time to develop social skills. For that reason, athletes can sometimes get a little crazy with their money after they have achieved professional status.
There is something about athletes that seems to cause them to spend a lot of money on things that don’t matter. They usually don’t come from a wealthy family, and then all of a sudden they are ridiculously rich.
This often does not lead to making the best financial decisions. Then, they are also always young, and often are surrounded by a bunch of their hometown friends who are along for the ride, as well as a lot of hot women who are trying to get on the ride as well. Then lastly, there is often not a lot of financial education going on with these guys; they seem to think the money is going to last forever. Many of them end up completely broke and even bankrupt and all those friends and women are long gone by the time that happens.
Alfonso Soriano – Blue Hummer
A guy that is driving a Hummer is already considered a big show off who is trying way too hard to impress people. Well, Alfonso Soriano took that to a whole new level. He spent $600,000 on a Hummer, then put in another $100,000 on a ridiculously expensive stereo system, and also put on a solid silver plaque with his name on it. The word is that Soriano has been trying to sell it, even on such impressively high priced sites as eBay. You are all class, Alfonso.
Shaquille O’Neal – Superman Stuff
All we all know about Shaq is that he has so much money, that him blowing a little bit here and there on things he likes makes at least a little bit of sense. Still though, when you spend tens of thousands on Superman stuff and you are over the age of nine you have to get called out at least a little bit. Shaq loves Superman. He has a custom-made bed in the shape of a big S that cost around $15,000 and also has an SUV that has a Superman emblem on it.
Kobe Bryant – 15 Bottles Of Cristal
Kobe Bryant once got in a battle with Pro Poker player Antonio Esfandiara about who could waste more money on Cristal Champagne. Kobe saw Antonio buy two bottles, which were each worth $1,400, so he ordered five. Then Antonio ordered 10 to show Kobe that he could roll with him. Kobe decided to raise and ordered 15 bottles, bringing his total tab to around $21,000. He paid and left without drinking any of it.
Vince Young – Bought all the seats on a plane
Vince Young was supposed to be a big star when he was drafted by the Tennessee Titans, so big in fact that the quarterback signed a $26 million contract. He never lived up to expectations, but he did make more than enough to do some really stupid things, and Young did not let us down.
Once he had to make it from Nashville to Houston, and he didn’t want to deal with a bunch of crying babies and mouth breathers, so he bought up every seat on the plane. Yep, there were 120 seats and he bought them all. That one flight probably cost him $22,000. With spending habits like that, it is was no wonder that Young went bankrupt.
Scottie Pippen – Private Jet
Scottie Pippen was an amazing basketball player for the Chicago Bulls, but he always had to play second fiddle to Michael Jordan, who is widely considered the best player ever. One would think that maybe that would make him feel a little insecure, but not so much that he had to show off and buy his own private jet. He paid $4 million for his own private ride in the sky, but then found out that it needed a little work to be air safe.
In fact he paid additional one million dollars to get it fixed up enough to be able to fly. He never did get the repairs done so his $4 million private jet turned into a $4 million paper weight. Presumably Pippen never missed that $4 million a whole lot. Especially since his nickname around town in Chicago was “No Tippin’ Pippen.”
Deshawn Stevenson- A Home ATM
Having a home ATM does not make a lot of sense. This type of logic did not deter basketball player Deshawn Stevenson, who has an ATM at his house that is always stocked with $20,000. Just in case he wakes up in the middle of the night and needs to walk downstairs and feel important. Even worse, if you use the ATM at his house, it charges you $4.50 which goes directly to Stevenson. I imagine that poker parties at his house get just a bit intense.
Warren Sapp- All sorts of things
Warren Sapp was one of the best football players of his generation. He is a Super Bowl champion, is in the Hall of Fame, and he made a ton of money, too. He used that money to buy a slew of cars, a huge mansion with a pool and a water slide, 24o pairs of Nikes, a whole bunch of expensive watches, a $1,200 bearskin rug, a million-dollar painting, and a pair of boxing gloves that were autographed by Muhammad Ali. Warren’s investments were just a huge waste of money. Too bad, Sapp eventually declared bankruptcy.
Chad Johnson- Semi Truck
Chad Johnson, also known as ‘Ochocinco’, has always been a bit larger than life, or at least has attempted to be anyway. So it makes sense that he would spend $100,000 on a huge black semi-truck right? Well, actually no, it makes no sense at all. You can’t park it anywhere, it gets four miles to the gallon and instead of looking cool behind the wheel, when driving it the whole thing kind of screams.
Evander Holyfield- A Ridiculous Mansion With 109 Rooms
Evander Holyfield bought a mansion. It is 54,000 square feet, has an Olympic size swimming pool and 109 rooms. That isn’t cool, that is creepy. You could have Ted Bundy living two floors down and never even know it. Holyfield couldn’t come up with the taxes, and was even sued for not paying his yearly grounds keeping fees before the place was finally foreclosed on.
Joe Johnson- 1,500 pairs of shoes
Joe Johnson likes shoes. Johnson has had a very good, if not great career; he is a seven-time all-star and currently plays for the Utah Jazz. He has obviously made a lot of money over the years. Because he owns over 1,500 pairs of shoes, that have cost him an estimated $400,000.
Marquis Daniels- A Necklace That Looks Just Like Him
Marquis Daniels, is neither that good of a basketball player, nor is he that good looking, but he still commissioned a necklace that was supposed to look just like him which is “Composed of porcelain eyes and black diamond chain dreadlocks, along with 1,300 grams of white and cognac diamonds and 14 carat gold”. It cost an estimated $60,000. Daniels doesn’t play anymore, so if you happen to see a guy working at a 7-11 wearing a necklace that looks just like him, then you might be looking at the man himself.
Chris Johnson- Gold Teeth
Chris Johnson bought himself some gold teeth. He did his whole upper grill that way; it is estimated to have cost him close to $9,000.
Mike Tyson- Tigers
Mike Tyson purchased tigers and is not dead. When you think about it though, if you were a tiger would you attack Mike Tyson? Tyson bought three tigers for $70,000 each. They cost $200,000 a year to feed and he also had to pay $125,000 for a trainer to watch them when he was out of town. I imagine just a regular pet sitting service would not have worked out that well. It was too expensive so he eventually sold them, which makes those tigers pretty lucky.
Gilbert Arenas- Shark Tank
No Gilbert Arenas was not on Shark Tank, presenting a really cool idea to Mark Cuban. Arenas actually had a shark tank in his home. Extravagant much, Gilbert? It cost $5,000 a month to keep it running, and then of course, there was the cost to pay for a shark and the food that it eats. Arenas is no stranger to wasting cash; when he turned 25 he threw himself a birthday party that ended up costing around $1 million.
His career did not last that long, so I imagine he is not spending money at nearly the same rate anymore. As a matter of fact, his last gig playing basketball was in China. His last playing basketball gig was as a member of the Shanghai Sharks.