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As a three-time NBA All-Star and former NBA Champion, Antoine Walker is one of the best basketball players of the 1990s and early 2000s. But his early success came with some difficult financial lessons.
Walker was signed to the Boston Celtics at just 19 years old. Throughout his 13-year athletic career, it’s estimated he earned as much as $108 million — a large portion of which came from a six-year $71 million contract he signed at just 21.
“The money came so fast without the education,” Walker told Ross Mac on the Financial Freestyle podcast (see video above or listen below).
Walker partly attributes his lack of financial education to the decisions that ultimately led him to file for bankruptcy in 2010.
Though he became debt-free just three years later, the former professional athlete now talks openly about his financial mistakes and offers advice for others to learn from them.
“I think it’s my job to kind of use the things that I did wrong and just help [others] out,” Walker said, addressing the challenges of newly minted professional athletes and those who come into wealth quickly.
“I know the things that they want to do,” he said. “I know the things that they’re buying. I know the things that they’re overlooking. … I try to put that back in their face and understand that this basketball career or any sports career is going to be short-lived, and you got a whole life to live after your career is over with.”
Walker admitted that when he signed his lucrative NBA contracts, he didn’t have a firm understanding of taxes and tax brackets. Though his contracts promised him millions, he took home significantly less than he thought he would after taxes.
This, coupled with some bad investments, led him to build a lifestyle he couldn’t financially sustain.
“I think we have to start teaching our kids about their lifestyle,” Walker said. “Because when you’re making money, … everything is going good — you’re buying cars, you got houses, you got jewelry, you got all these things going on. But at some point, the money’s going to stop coming in the way it came in the beginning. Are you able and are you prepared to maintain that lifestyle?”
“You have to be ready to withstand that storm,” he cautioned.
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Walker said he relied heavily on financial investors and other professionals to manage his money, but it didn’t stop him from being hit hard by the drop in the real estate market during the 2008 recession.
There’s nothing wrong with leaning on professionals, he said. However, it shouldn’t be a reason for someone to avoid learning more about how to build and maintain their wealth.
“No matter how much money you make, you’re never too busy to take care of your own finances,” Walker said. “We have to stop being uneducated when we’re the ones out there making our money in this livelihood.”
According to Walker, taking time to learn from your mistakes is how you can build wealth that can sustain generations.
“If you want to be successful financially down the line, you’ve got to be stubborn,” Walker said. “You have to be to a point where you have to actually build, not only for your kids, [but] your kids’ kids.”
Every Monday, Financial Freestyle host Ross Mac talks with key guests to discuss their wealth-building journeys and what it takes to build a lasting financial footprint. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service.
