Former NBA star Paul Pierce filed court documents this week claiming he is "drowning financially" after Fox Sports ended his pay, per TMZ. His average monthly income fell from about $119,000 to zero.
The 3PT Prince reportedly banked about $200 million over 19 NBA seasons, and the drowning is running at $48,000 a month. His own court filing itemizes the leak: $5,000 in groceries, $7,000 on eating out, $3,200 in utilities, $3,500 on entertainment, $1,000 on clothes. That is not a budget, that is a yacht with a hole in it.
Here is the mechanic, the one every post-athlete money story runs: the salary ends (Fox's last check came in August), the "tapped out" narrative enters, and suddenly the $28,000 a month in child support and $20,000 a month in spousal support that he himself claims to pay is the weight that sank the ship. He is now asking the court to block his ex Princess Santiago's request for $40,000 in her legal fees and $10,000 for a forensic accountant who would look at the actual books. His lawyer's phrase "great difficulty" is doing a lot of work for a man who claims $3 million in property and a six figure monthly lifestyle.
The part nobody says out loud: a forensic accountant is the thing that ends this story, because the expense list is exhibit A. The eating out line is the confession.
YOUR TURN: Can a man who eats out $7,000 a month be "drowning," or is that just the deepest pool in L.A.?
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