Former NBA Star Facing Foreclosure

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 13th 2008 at 9:02AM

The latest celebrity victim of the foreclosure crisis is former NBA star Latrell Sprewell. Last summer, Sprewell's yacht, the 70-foot "Milwaukee's Best" was repossessed now his home is meeting the same fate. RBS Citizens NA, or Citizens Bank, has filed a foreclosure suit on Sprewell's $405,000 home in River Hills, a suburb of Milwaukee. Sprewell bought the home in 1994 and owed $295,138 in outstanding payments plus interest. The documents say that Sprewell failed to make his mortgage payments of $2,593 per month since last September.

Sprewell, now 37, was once one of the NBA's infamous bad boys, known for choking a coach during practice. He played 13 seasons total for three teams. Just a few years ago he turned down a three-year,$21 million contract extension from the Minnesota Timberwolves saying, "I've got my family to feed." At that time he was making $14.6 million a year. The yacht, which Sprewell bought for around $1.5 million was sold at auction for $856,000 to help pay off the $1.3 million he owes on the boat.

Sprewell is in some good company. Check out our gallery of other celebrity foreclosures below.

UPDATE: This article says that 60% of NBA players go broke after only five years of retirement. An interesting read for those of you in the comments who were wondering how this could have happened to Latrell Sprewell.

Gallery: Celebrity Foreclosures