VIN BAKER was a four-time National Basketball Association (NBA) all-star from 1995 to 1998 who made an estimated $100 million during a career spanning 12 years from 1993 to 2005. The tragedy is as fast as one makes $100 million playing professional basketball for 12 years, it is, unfortunately, faster to spend and lose all that money by hanging out with the wrong crowd, mismanagement of his finances, making bad investments and alcoholism. Vin Baker drank his $100 million to a stupor.
Baker was one of the few remaining big men who played with his back to the basket. When he played in Milwaukee, Seattle and Boston, he constantly commanded double teams whenever he gets the ball in the post. He finished with either hand and played center and power forward.
According to Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal, “Baker battled alcoholism toward the end of his career. That addiction, plus a series of financial missteps ranging from a failed restaurant to simply too many hands dipping into his gold-plated cookie jar, combined to wipe out nearly $100 million in earnings.”
A hundred million dollars can buy you a lot of things but, unfortunately for Baker, $100 million couldn’t buy him someone who’d tell him enough is enough, he had no moral compass and no conscience to tell him to spend his money wisely.
Based on my research, Baker’s problem with alcohol started when he played for the Celtics. Losses would mean drinking binges in his hotel room. He had clashes with then-Celtics Coach Jim O’Brien in one practice because his breath reeked of alcohol. McNamara continues, “When the Sonics traded him to Boston in 2002, Baker’s star was fading. In 2004 he recorded double-doubles in 21 of his first 35 games but clashes with O’Brien ultimately revealed issues with alcohol. Baker told the New York Daily News in 2013 that by then he was leading “a double life, star power forward at TD Garden, a binge drinker on the side.”
His career and life were spiraling out of control. McNamara adds, “The Celtics suspended him three times and ultimately terminated his contract with nearly $35 million remaining. The players union filed a grievance on Baker’s behalf and the two sides eventually reached a financial settlement. Quick stops with the Knicks, Rockets and Clippers followed but by 2006 Baker’s career was over.
Financial problems were Baker’s next hurdle. He lost a home in a Durham, Connecticut, development he was a partner in and a restaurant, Vinnie’s Saybrook Fish House, soured. In 2012 he sued his accountant, Donald S. Brodeur, for mismanagement and breach of contract. Baker said that the lawsuit has “been resolved, somewhat favorably,” but makes it clear he needs to work to support his family.”
A decade later Baker is picking up the pieces of a life ruined by alcoholism. Alcoholism shattered a sure Hall of Fame career and a good life for himself and his family.
Ten years later one finds Vin Baker working in a Starbucks coffee shop training to become a manager. After losing $100 million and a sure Hall of Fame career, Baker has to start from somewhere.
“When you make choices and decisions and think that it will never end, and then you get into spending and addiction and more spending, it’s a definite formula for losing,” he said. “If you don’t have perspective in your personal life and you don’t understand what this $1 million or $15 million means, it will go.”
“I appreciate that in a lot of cases it’s more money, more problems,” he says. “I think in professional sports today teams have to deal with the personal challenges of giving young men this extraordinary amount of money. For me it was a struggle. I think when you’re giving guys who aren’t even All-Stars $80 million, there should be a framework in place where these kids can talk to someone.”
“I would insist that you surround yourself with the person you trust the absolute most, someone who can tell you, ‘you’re wrong, don’t buy that, don’t go there, that person’s no good.’ I would also say be able to monitor every single dime that comes out of your accounts as if you’re a Starbucks barista. My check here I know exactly where my money goes. Don’t trust it with an accountant or a family friend. Make sure you’re aware and be responsible, because next thing you know people are stealing from you.”
In the recently concluded NBA Summer League, Baker was an assistant coach on the Milwaukee Bucks summer league team upon the invitation of Coach Jason Kidd. Baker is now 43 years old and has a wife and four children. He preaches and ministers in his father’s church. Baker has also counseled current and former NBA players on managing their finances.
The NBA has a program for incoming rookies wherein they’re taught on managing their finances, if they fail to attend the seminar, then they will not be allowed to play. This is the NBA’s way of teaching these young players how to manage their finances and not fall into the thinking that money grows on trees when you’re playing in the NBA.
In my opinion, Baker still has a place in the league as a teacher and a mentor of young big men who’d like to learn from a 13-year NBA veteran who made the all-star game for four straight seasons and is also an Olympian, having played for the 2000 US Men’s basketball “Dream Team” in Sydney winning the gold medal. A lot of teams can use a big man coach.
If I were a young big man then I wouldn’t mind reaching out to him and gaining life lessons through life experiences he’s gone through and picking his brain as one of a dying breed of big men who posted up and played with his back to the basket.