15 Outrageous Quotes From Millionaire Athletes Who Went Broke

Having amassed a staggering $300-million fortune in the ring, Mike Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003. "Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent. Do you know what I do sometimes? Put on a ski mask and dress in old clothes, go out on the streets and beg for quarters," he said back in 1998.

An 11-time NBA All-Star who earned $154 million during his 15-season career, Allen Iversen ended his pro basketball career completely broke. During his 2012 divorce, he dramatically pulled out his empty pockets and told his estranged wife: “I don’t even have money for a cheeseburger!” She then handed him $61.

NBA player Antoine Walker managed to squander his $108-million fortune, and wound up filing for bankruptcy two years after he retired. “You become a millionaire overnight and you don’t know what do with it. We don’t understand taxes. We don’t understand lifestyles. We create a big expensive lifestyle for ourselves… I had some fetishes that I liked, materialistic things… and then obviously you get into an investment world that you don’t know about, that you don’t learn about in college and you put your money in the hands of other people that try to take care of it,” he said afterwards.

In his 2006 bankruptcy filing, the former Calgary Flames enforcer was revealed to be deeply in debt, including $185,000 owing to three casinos, but denied he'd ever engaged in sports betting. "As far as the gambling debts on there, not one cent was any type of sports betting," he said. "It's just something obviously I'm not proud of because it drags a lot of other people into this than I'd want. It's something I'm continuing to deal with."

The Argentinian soccer star turned coach earned big bucks over his career, but didn't bother so much when it came to paying his taxes. He reportedly had a tax bill in excess of $37 million Euros (about $52 million Canadian). He had this to say to his critics: "To those who did not believe: now suck my d**k. I'm sorry ladies for my words — and keep on sucking it... You treated me as you did. Now keep on sucking d**ks. I am grateful to my players and to the Argentinian people. I thank no one but them. The rest, keep on sucking d**ks."

Figure skater Dorothy Hamill became an American icon when she won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, her iconic hairstyle copied by millions of women. After going pro, she signed a $1 million/year contract with Ice Capades, the first female athlete to earn a mil a year. In 1993, after Ice Capades went bankrupt, she bought it in a multimillion-dollar deal. A few years later, Ice Capades tanked and she was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1996. "Money is evil," she said of the experience.

The boxer who famously had his ear bitten off by Mike Tyson had earned more than $200 million in the ring — yet wound up so cash-strapped he was forced to sell his Olympic medals, championship belts and other prized possessions. Hired in 2016 as the brand ambassador for a sports betting website, Holyfield optimistically declared: "The second half of your life is going to be better than the first half. I made $230 million in the first half, so I’m still hungry.”

A worldwide soccer sensation, British superstar George Best was also a hard-drinking hooligan who served three months in prison for drunk driving and assaulting a cop — and then received another prison sentence for doing the same thing all over again. His heavy boozing led him to require a liver transplant, and wound up broke after earning more than $100 million. "I spent a lot of money on booze, [women], and fast cars," Best once quipped. "The rest I just squandered."

NBA great Latrell Sprewell had a checkered past (he once had a $24-mil contract voided after he attacked his coach when he tried to instruct him on how to pass) turned down a $14.6-million contract extension from the Minnesota Timberwolves. When asked why he turned down the offer, he said: "Why would I want to help them win a title? They’re not doing anything for me. I’m at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I got my family to feed." A few years later, his mansions and yacht were repossessed and he faced a $200-million lawsuit launched by an ex-girlfriend.

The star linebacker earned big and spent big, admitting at one point he spent thousands a day on cocaine. Add some bad business investments, and LT filed for bankruptcy in 2009. “Crazy as it seems, there is a real relationship between wild, reckless abandon off the field and being that way on the field," he said of his out-of-control lifestyle.

After a Major League Baseball career that left him with a fortune estimated at $50 million, a combination of bad business decisions and his lavish lifestyle led Lenny Dykstra to file for bankruptcy. He then went to prison after being charged with bankruptcy fraud and obstruction of justice, along with state charges of identify theft, grand theft auto and possession of drugs. When confronted with the information that he owed $7,000 to a company that rents private jets, he bragged: "That's my f***in' ashtray money, bro. I don't even know if I flew on their plane." In a 2016 appearance on Howard Stern's radio show, Dykstra claimed he now made his living as a gigolo.

Track and field star Marion Jones had a spectacular fall from grace after winning five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She was subsequently caught lying about taking performance-enhancing drugs, which, coupled with a cheque fraud scam, led her to spend six months in the slammer. "I went to federal prison because I lied," she said. "That's my crime. I could look back and I can say, 'Gosh, I wish I wouldn't have been so trusting.' But I really wish I wouldn't have lied. That's my regret."

After playing for the New York Jets and the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mark Brunell filed for bankruptcy in 2011 after blowing $50 million on a series of failed business investments, and was so strapped for cash he was forced to sell his Super Bowl rings. "Maybe I've made that mistake enough not to do it again," said Brunell.

NFL star Terrell Owens admitted that he squandered a fortune estimated at being between $80 million and $100 million, and asked a judge to reduce his child support payments (he has four children by four different women) because he was broke. “I basically had to sell everything,” Owens told Dr. Phil. “It’s a humbling situation.”

Seven years after signing a $26-million contract with the NFL's Tennessee Titans, pro football player Vince Young burned through it all and declared bankruptcy, with reports he spent $5,000 a week at the Cheesecake Factory and once bought every seat on a Southwest flight so he could have some privacy. Looking back at his conflicts with teammates and coaches, Young admitted: "I wish I would’ve just shut up and just played football."