Twin Cities newspaper the Star-Tribune is reporting that Latrell Sprewell is in fresh financial trouble. Just months removed from the seizure of his yacht, the former NBA star is poised to lose his suburban Milwaukee home as well, thanks to his inability to make mortgage payments. Of course, the the Tubes are abuzz with jokes about Sprewell’s famous “I’ve got to feed my kids,” line–his justification for turning down a 3-year, $21 million contract that he deemed insufficient. (Spree’s agent also said that $5 million a season was a level beneath which [Sprewell] would not stoop or kneel.”)

The amazing and sad thing is that Sprewell’s career earnings from basketball alone have topped $96 million. Granted, his strangling of current Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo meant that he’s never caught on as a product endorser, but he still had other business ventures, including the Washington-state based Sprewell Racing.

I’m reminded of a quote from the currently incarcerated Keon Clark (drug possession, driving on suspended license, etc.), who retired at the relatively young age of 29 and turned down overtures from multiple NBA teams:

“People don’t understand, if you can’t live the rest of your life off one year in the NBA, you can’t live off 21.”

A YouTube tribute to Spree as the self-proclaimed American Dream. He sure was fun to watch:

Warning: video’s lyrics contain some NSFW language

Thanks to Nick for the tip.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 3:09 pm and is filed under The Mighty Have Fallen, Roundball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.