Brandon Jennings’ life changed forever when he entered the NBA in 2009, as it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and promised riches beyond his imagination. The downside of that, though, is that some friends and family started viewing Jennings as an ATM, and during an appearance on Above The Rim with DH 12, he revealed it was one of the reasons he chose to stop playing basketball.
“That was one of the reasons I had to walk away from the game too, because of family and friends,” Jennings said. “It got too much about money. And basketball is my freedom and basketball is my therapy so when I’m between those lines, I’m not thinking about anything.
“But once basketball becomes a job and people look at you as a job… ATM, then it kind of gets depressing, I mean no matter who you are,” Jennings continued. “You don’t want to be looked at as a cash cow… So, the biggest thing I would say is you got to stay spiritual, you got to keep the right people around you that can help you, that are… adding value to your life.”
Host Dwight Howard revealed he had similar experiences as well.
“I had a lot of people tell me like, ‘Man, you don’t really care about me. How you say you love me, we family, we cool, we friends and when I need you, you don’t want to give me no money?’ … That don’t mean I don’t care about you or don’t love you,” Howard said. “It’s just like, no I earned this. Do you know how hard I had to work to obtain what I got?
“And you want this because you don’t want to work and you want me to just give it to you,” Howard continued. “And when you went home night after night having to deal with stuff like that, then it kinda turned you off from wanting to be around people. You want to be a loner.”
While not many would sympathize with a multi-millionaire like Howard, I do feel for him. When so many people around you are acting in that manner, you inevitably will want to just stay away.
Jennings felt the same and revealed wanting to be away from everybody was part of why he chose to play in China and Russia toward the end of his career. He was starting to get annoyed by all the requests and just wanted to get away.
It was in Russia that Jennings last played basketball at a professional level, as he briefly suited up for Zenit Saint Petersburg in 2018. He signed a one-year deal with the Russian team, but his contract was terminated after 10 games and that was that for his career.
Jennings walked away from the game having earned $40 million in salaries during his nine seasons in the NBA and $1.5 million during his time in China with the Shanxi Brave Dragons. The 35-year-old now reportedly has a net worth of $16 million, so he certainly isn’t struggling financially post-retirement, which is good to see. So many players over the years have lost their way once they walk away from the game but he hasn’t.
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