Gene Collier: Kanye West’s debt can’t stack up with financial gaffes of the sports world
Even the most virulent strain of hyper-compensation, such as a university strength and conditioning coach grossing $500,000 annually, is hardly worthy of a decent shrug from the likes of us. The generally accepted financial intelligence that Michael Jordan’s net worth is in the neighborhood of $1 billion, somehow gets through our consciences without a lot of turbulence.
But even in such a warped context, we’ll occasionally bump up against a dollar figure that buckles us, and this week we actually bumped up against two.
First came the heartbreaking news that rap mogul Kanye West finds himself $53 million in debt. But where else did I just see that exact figure – $53 million?
It’s what Kim Kardashian made last year for um, whatever that is. Now if you don’t know – and God bless you for not knowing it – Kim Kardashian is married to Kanye West. I find it too much of a coincidence that Kanye’s in the hole the exact amount Kim earned in 2015 for, um, whatever that is. Couldn’t Kanye just ask his wife for maybe a $53 million payday loan?
Just because Kayne West’s net worth was recently estimated at $145 million, and just because that appears to mean he’s even more recently blown through $198 million, to us, the sports/pop culture obsessed, it’s no biggie.
We know, for example, that Mike Tyson, the undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion cash fire hose of all time, once claimed to have lost a suitcase containing $1 million. He just couldn’t remember where’d put it.
Tyson ring opponent Evander Holyfield went bankrupt from $250 million. Golfer John Daly once estimated he went through more than $1.5 million in five hours of slot play. Basketball’s Allen Iverson said in divorce proceedings in 2012 that at one point his expenses were $360,000 per week.
Former quarterback Vince Young was known for spending an estimated $5,000 a week at Cheesecake Factory. One year after retiring from the NFL, former Ravens defensive back Chris McAlister told a family court judge that was living with his parents because he couldn’t support himself, despite making an estimated $50 million between 2004-09. Antoine Walker, who made roughly $115 million in the NBA, once owned 14 houses and is said to have never worn the same designer suit twice, spent his way to a point where he’d have to sell the NBA championship ring he earned with the Miami Heat.
These are among our most familiar horror stories, the anecdotal antithesis of so many athletes and celebs who took their assets and wisely invested it through people they could trust.
Like Bernie Madoff.
What a relief Kanye won’t be falling for that.