It’s a mind-boggling concept most ordinary people try and try again to wrap their heads around. Why and how do pro-athletes who make more in a year than many will probably ever make in their lifetimes go broke at the end of their careers?
According to Sports Illustrated, “60% of former NBA players are broke within five years of retirement. By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress.”
Many of them are suckered into bad investments, besieged by freeloaders, and, unfortunately, broken with medical problems. It appears that many young athletes lack the discipline to hang onto their cash after they hang them up.
BlackEnterprise.com recently spoke to retired NBA three-point king Dennis “3-D” Scott. Scott just became brand ambassador for Shavewise, a new shaving product for men.
Scott has developed a second life as an NBA broadcaster, businessman, and music production company owner.
It’s safe to say he is one retired NBA player that won’t be joining the queue on the unemployment line.
When we noticed that 3-D was in the mood to share advice, we capitalized on his generosity of spirit and asked him to dish three tips to young athletes in the game that could save them from going broke when the league spits them out.
Here’s some of what he told us about surviving after the game and about his personal journey into the world of music:
Lose the Ego.
Please check your ego at the door. That is the No. 1 Â problem in men, period. Black, white, Hispanic, yellow, green, purple, Asian or alien. If you can check your ego at the door, normally it’s a better start in life, business relationships, whatever it may be.
Just Say No.
Be able to say no. And sometimes you gotta say hell no! Because sometimes the regular no doesn’t get the attention from a family member, girlfriend, wife, fiance, or business partner. Sometimes you have to say no to yourself too. If you can figure out when and how to say no, you’ll  have a better chance to be successful.
Live Below Your Means.
Always live your lifestyle below your means. If you are making $100,000, you probably should be living right around 30 or 40 grand. If you are making a million you probably should be living right around $300,000. Athletes making $3 million a year shouldn’t be spending $2.8 million, because they get to the end of their careers and it’s hard to adjust — so then they are still spending $3 million but only making $300,000 because they’re retired.
We also asked Scott if he still had his Florida record label and whether he still practiced music, or if his rapping and crooning days were merely expressions of youthful exuberance.
He tells us he scaled it back to more of the production side and turned to management consulting.
He says, “I try to find young producers or young artists and introduce them to
my network of people, like the Ludacrises, the LA Reids, the Chaka Zulus, the Jermaine Dupris — a lot of the music scene people. I don’t know if you’ve seen that new documentary ATL – The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise in the Rap Game, I knew maybe 80% of the people in that documentary.”Despite that, Scott isn’t originally from the A. He tells us, “I’m originally from Washington, D.C. My music roots is live music because I’m a big fan of Chuck Brown who, sadly, just passed away. His style was go-go music which is live percussion and has a little Spanish feel to it sometimes. But when I came down South I got a taste of what they call that Southern bounce and then I went all the way to Orlando where they had that bass music. I tell you, that was another culture shock to me which I finally adapted to and which is why I got into the business.”
Then he gets serious on us. “Listen,” he says, “I realized that if you are a young entrepreneur and your business is done correctly and your paperwork is done correctly, you can be an independent rapper and sell 200,000-300,000 copies and make $200,000 or $300,000 have an honest living. That’s the truth. ”
So naturally, we asked why more young artists didn’t choose to go that route.
He says, “A lot of what I call young entrepreneurs trying to get away from the street life see that they can make honest money, but all the young guys want to be the next Jay-Z. I tell them it’s not about being the next Jay-Z. Just make sure you get your business right and then let your business take you where it goes.”