Usually, even an average NBA player earns enough money during their NBA career to support their families for years to come. They make millions of dollars a year and if they make smart investments, it can really help their family have an amazing life.
But even so, there are many NBA players who go broke right after leaving the league due to their highly expensive lifestyle. Of course, once their source of income is finished, so are their days of enjoying the lavish lifestyle. What we are talking about is much more common these days, when players make a ton of money.
However, the NBA was not always this big of a league. In fact, if we talk about it before the NBA and ABA merger, players were barely making enough to get through. Obviously, years down the line, many are struggling financially. The league has finally done something about it and it’s truly heartwarming.
Via USA Today:
The NBA board of governors voted Tuesday to pay $24.5 million to former American Basketball Association players, many of whom are struggling to pay rent, medical bills and buy the basic necessities to live.
The agreement reached by the NBA and its players’ association ends a years-long battle launched by the Indianapolis-based Dropping Dimes Foundation.
Dropping Dimes, a non-profit founded in 2014 to help struggling former ABA players and their families, has been pleading with the NBA to give players of the now-defunct ABA the money it says they deserve.
About 115 players are eligible for the payout, which the NBA is calling “recognition payments,” not pensions. Those players either spent three or more years in the ABA or played at least three combined years in the ABA and NBA and never received a vested pension from the NBA.
The agreement pays players an average $3,828 annually for each year they were in the league. For example, a player with the minimum three seasons will receive $11,484 a year. A player with the most years of service, such as Freddie Lewis who has nine, will get $35,452 a year.
It’s a great step to make sure the former players of the league are taken care of. But at the same time, it’s still just a step in the right direction.
The initial appeal was to grant this compensation to all 140 living ABA players. But due to tweaked criteria, only 115 players were eligible for these benefits. Hopefully, the remaining players will also get some sort of compensation.
