Ex-NBA Star Antoine Walker Reveals the Worst Purchase He Ever Made

Ex-NBA star Antoine Walker revealed the worst purchase he ever made, and discussed going bankrupt in 2010.

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Complex Original

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Antoine Walker’s money troubles have been well documented. He made more than $100 million playing in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Memphis Grizzlies, but in 2010, he was forced to file for bankruptcy after blowing through just about all of it.

Since then, it appears as though Walker has rebounded from his financial hardship, and he currently works as a consultant to Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment (GSE) divison. He’s the perfect person to talk to young players about saving money and investing it properly, and he routinely dishes out advice to them about how they can make their money last much longer than his did.

Walker has done a series of interviews this week about his partnership with Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment (GSE) divison, but one of the best was a Q&A he did with Sports Illustrated. In between speaking about filing for bankruptcy and admitting to losing more than $18 million in failed real estate projects, Walker also discussed the weakness he has always had for cars and mentioned how it negatively impacted his bank account during his playing days.

"I had a car fetish while I was playing," he told SI. "I would always keep six, seven cars. If I would see a guy pull up in the lot with a new car, I would maybe say I like that and go get it."

Walker was also asked to name the worst purchase he ever made and, while he could have gone in any number of directions (you don't blow through $100 million without making a lot of bad purchases), he settled on the purchase of a particularly pricey car as his answer.

"Probably my Maybach," he said. "A Maybach Mercedes Benz. At that time, they were pretty high-end vehicles. I paid like $400,000, $450,000 for it."

Walker really seems to regret buying that car. In addition to discussing it this week, he also mentioned it in an interview he did with Scoop Jackson in 2014 and shed some light on just how bad of an investment an expensive car like a Maybach can be.

"I remember when I started going through my situation," he said. "I’m buying a house, I’m buying a Maybach—$350,000 to $400,000 for a car. That’s a home! But at least the house, it holds some value and I can maybe make some money back off of it. The Maybach, once I drive it off the lot, is worth about $250,000. That’s $100,000 gone. Money I can’t ever get back."

You can check out the rest of Walker's SI Q&A here. Even though Walker has struggled with money in the past, it sounds like he’s in a much better place today.

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