He earned nearly $25 million in salary during his career. A lot more had to have gone wrong than missing out on “little parties” for him to now be living month to month with a foresclosed house.

I know it doesn’t really need to be said, but the sheer stupidity of athletes never fails to shock me

He can go make incredible money in Europe or Asia still, and him living month to month is ridiculous incredibly poor money management

Man made at least 12 milly after taxes, no sympathy

I mean… 26 mill in career earnings. Take half to pay taxes and its still 13 mill in like 9 years. That is a fucking stupid amount of money. There is 0 justification for living month to month other than financial incompetency.

Yeah, not schmoozing at parties is the reason you’re not playing anymore…

I would’ve just played better. But I’m built different.

Man take away the mics from these ex athletes. Making me actively despise all of them.

Cauley Stein got hooked on percocets. He bounced out of the league in 2021 because he was addicted to pain killers.

Plus it’s not like he was ever getting better. He let everyone know he stopped working on his game because he didn’t know any rebounding or defensive drills.

$25M could have set him up for life. Easily.

Those people at the parties not that interested in doing business with guys with face tattoos

One thing I never understood w these situations is why they don’t just set up a basketball skills coaching business. Sure, not every guy has the personality to be a good fit as the coach of a team, working for a school. But WCS could SURELY charge \(100/hour to rich kids’ parents for lesson, right? In a big city, maybe even \)200. At $100/hour you only need like 20 hours per week (7 days per week) to make over 100k pre tax. That could be 5 kids 4 hours per week each. Plus you’re just a walking advertisement at his height.

Athletes are so incredibly stupid. I almost respect their ability to be dumb as shit without care.

I’m ecstatic that I just hit 1 mill and I’m 48.

Dude had what? 20 mill and thinks what went wrong was not networking and we’re supposed to feel bad. Lol

“My mistake was not cultivating relationships to help me out after I blew 26 million dollars.”

No, I think your mistake was blowing 26 million dollars….

Willie Cauley-Stein earned a total of $25,867,686 during his NBA career, according to Spotrac.

Im sorry but he is just dumb.

Learn to not waste your money. He made millions and is now in a shittier situation. I wish I had millions to waste.

These athletes get on the pods and talk about how hard their life is not playing their sport anymore and how they are broke. How does anyone feel the least bit of sympathy for these guys losing all the money they made in their career

Had such high hopes for him😔

Cmon bro. If you wasted 20millions dollars, you have bigger issues than missing little parties lol.

If you keep thinking that was it, then you learned nothing.

prime? play overseas?

Lifelong Kings fan (thank you, yes, it is hard). WCS did not play with heart, he wanted to be a 3 and D guy but was actually a skilled interior defender and shot alterer (when he wanted to be which was not often).

He also famously once said he would get more rebounds a game if he was paid to get more rebounds a game (something like that).

WCS doesn’t “get it” and doesn’t “get” that he doesn’t get it.

Willie didn’t need to get on those percs…that’ll cut your career fast. he was dumb with money, that’s obvious

I recall Calipari bringing in financial people to discuss how to manage money with his players “when they get their first paycheck”.

with NIL, all teams should be doing this now. its life changing money even if they never sniff the NBA or euro league BBall again

Surely the players’ union implements some kind of mandatory financial investment courses or something. This has been happening for so long.

This dude is a perfect example of someone who pretends to take accountability, but isn’t really doing so at all. No actual look in the mirror at his faults.

Businessman? Motherfucker you should have been watching tape, hustling for boards, etc. One of the laziest and lowest IQ players I’ve ever seen with clearly no intentions to improve.

You can get all the tattoos you want…eventually the cream rises to the top.

This guy is just another Christian Wood. A losing player with no ability to admit they screwed themselves.

Yeah it’s basketball politics that made him blew through 25 million dollars and forced him to live month-to-month

It’s always politics, like when it forced Cam Reddish to shoot sub-40% from the field, or when it denied 5’7 Isiah Thomas back into the NBA in the age of 6’5 guards who could defend and shoot

damn
such real world shit

It was weird how he went out. I didn’t think he was done.

$25M could have set him up for life. Easily.

Should have focused on basketball. Learning to shoot would have gone a long way.

Dudes 7’1, you’d think he’d find an end of bench role somewhere if he hadn’t burned bridges in the NBA. With Jokic, Embiid, Giannis and now Wemby at the top of the pyramid, there’s value in being a gigantic body and no one is calling.

I might be in the minority here, but it ain’t all. his fault. A list of those that failed him (plus others, I’m sure):

- His fam

- The Kansas public school system (shocker)

- UK

- His agent

- His “friends”

- The NBA financial educational system

- Himself. His drug addiction plays a role here, too.

Feel for the fella, but fuck….

Businessman? How about spend less than you make and put away a spare $1-2 million that you can’t touch. 

It’s amazing how dumb these people are despite an endless list of examples of prior cautionary tales.

He could come to NBL

Finance classes need to be taught in high school.

Something tells me even if he made 100 mil more he’d still be in the same situation.

Lol only 32 living check to check welcome to ours worlds

I don’t feel sorry for him. I lost my ability to play basketball after I became disabled in a car crash at 19. If you made millions and squandered it then you were a dumbass.

How do you make like $25M and be broke at 32??

He made $25M in his career. Having his house foreclosed is so stupidly irresponsible.

Um, maybe don’t waste millions of dollars like a fucking moron. Politics the fuck?

What an idiot and he’s clearly learned nothing, still blaming other people and thinking special relationships are why people play in the league.

You got worse and worse as a player - THAT is why you’re out of the league. And if you had saved even 10% of the $25 million you earned you wouldn’t be living month to month.

“On April 9, 2015, Cauley-Stein, and [Kentucky] teammates Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, Dakari Johnson, Devin Booker, Trey Lyles, and Karl-Anthony Towns, all declared to enter their names into the NBA draft.”

That’s quite a lineup.

This whole group of Kentucky players all just seem so dumb.

I mean yeah if you want to be a serial businessman like Westbrook or Shaq then those relationships are important, but you could literally just hire the cheapest financial advisor known to man and they’d find a way to put money away into ETFs and chill so you’re not struggling post career.

This guy has always been a dumbass. Watching him getting absolutely fucked by Steven Adams on the boards was hilarious.

I never understand why athletes end up like this. Putting like $5M in a high yield savings alone would cover a yearly salary alone. Could literally live off interest for the rest of your life…

He clearly hasn’t learned if this is his main takeaway after going broke.

Thought his face tattoo said “no ragrets”

The most charitable reading of his comment is that players like DeAndre Jordan and Udonis Haslem are good ‘businessmen’ therefore they still get contracts even though they are fossils

And the answer is no Willie, they’re not businessmen they’re just smart, good mentors, good examples and role models. You weren’t that unfortunately, actually you were the opposite you were addicted to drugs at a point

Moron. Seriously.

It’s almost unbelievable to me that these guys are this bad with money. That’s more than most people make in their entire lives, and plenty of people who make nowhere near that enjoy nice retirements.

Known ZBO since I was in 7th grade, he always been a real one always asking the real questions and checking in on youngins..

Not surprised nothing changed

Money management’s a skill.  Part of that skill is knowing who to trust, and who has your best interest in mind.  While he bears the responsibility, I’m sure there are a lot of people who “helped” him on this path.

Lmao damn. I dont know what id do if i blew through nba money except start a podcast

The league also phased out these centres with their stretch big requirements. He could’ve had a long career in the other eras.

Damn out of that roster KAT and Book are the only ones still hooping at that level. Book didn’t even start for that team either.

Probably should have tried being more of a basketball player too.