NBA and sports fans in general have a basic understanding of professional athletes going broke after they retire. For some, they can even live check-to-check while they’re still playing. This wasn’t the case for Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, who accumulated almost $200 million in contracts by the end of his career. But he recently revealed some of the expenses that come with being a player, showing how quickly spending can get out of hand.
Advertisement
Some people think that NBA contracts have risen too high in recent seasons. Yet those people would be surprised to learn that players don’t get to keep a majority of their money. Depending on state tax laws, players can lose up to half of the money on their deals. Sometimes even more.
With this in mind, imagine how Pierce felt signing his first maximum contract in 2002 with the Boston Celtics for $80 million.
“My maximum contract, my first contract, was $80 million. So, let’s cut that in half. 40,” Pierce revealed on Club Shay Shay. But he still needed to account for other expenses. “Agent fee, boom, you talk about that. Then you talk about wanting to get a house. Now, I got a big deal. I want to get a house. So, I spent like $4 or $5 million on a house. State taxes on that. Now, I got the family on payroll. That’s another half a million… It can go faster than you think.”
While it was still a lot of money, and he was excited to have it, Pierce soon realized that he would have to pay for a lot. Meaning everything in his, his family, and his close friends’ lives. But he didn’t mind doing this. In fact, he felt somewhat obligated to.
However, Pierce found a slippery slope when he started to go out to the clubs.
“Now, I want to go stunt at the club. I want to have nice meals. $5,000 every time I go out to the club,” Pierce shared. “Like, damn, now I gotta take care of this girl over here. Let me throw her $2,000 a month on rent… Get her a nice car, this is my girl. I got her a little something.”
But it wasn’t just girlfriends that Pierce would spend money on. He would also splurge whenever his family visited. Not to mention, they would always want to go on a trip with him. Of course, Pierce would pay for everyone and everything then as well.
“You’re going to go on at least one trip. At least one. You got about four or five of them. Where are we gonna stay at? The Ritz,” Pierce said to much laughter. “‘P, what’s your room?’ Oh, I got the penthouse suite… That adds up.”
Funnily enough, Grant Hill’s mother gave the same advice to Charles Barkley during the 1996 ‘Dream Team II’ days. “Do not start giving your family and friends money. It’s going to ruin your relationships,” said Janet Hill to Barkley.
By the end of it all, the former Celtic couldn’t help but laugh at himself for his spending. But Pierce also acknowledged that other players who made much less than him would also spend like he did. It was those athletes that he worried about the most.
Pierce was smart with his money, though. He knew he could throw some big purchases around from time to time because he had endorsement deals rolling in alongside his NBA contract. Today, he still has a net worth of about $75 million, showing that not every athlete who spends a lot suffers in the long term.
