Look no further than the free agent signings today - $145 million here, $90 million there, $20 million for who - to understand why many players lose the concept of the value of money and spend cash as if they have an endless stack of winning lottery tickets. And it's not the cars, the houses, the bad investments, the side chicks that makes the average person shake their heads at the players spending habits, it's stories like the ones Giannis Antetokounmpo hilariously tells a reporter in this video that does.
Before I get into his stories, you have to understand why they are so shocking to Giannis too. In a Grantland article about the Greek Freak, it said Giannis once pulled a pair of discarded shoes by Caron Butler out of the trash and said "What are you doing? These good shoes!’” This is the same Giannis who Brandon Knight said would carry 6 or 7 boxes of free food from the player's lounge to his home to save money. You might call that being cheap. I call it being smart and not being wasteful. And when I call him 10 years from now, I wont be calling him broke.
In this interview, when asked "what was the craziest thing you have seen a teammate do with his money," Giannis replied that Caron Butler once gave him $500 to buy a pack of gum and some Mountain Dew! I have a feeling it wasn't a 12 pack of Dew either, so the total bill couldn't have been more than $3.
Giannis said he's also seen teammates buy a PS4 at every away game and then leave it at the hotel! I'm assuming those teammates aren't bringing games with them, so they are probably spending $400-500 at each stop just to basically rent a console for a night or two.
Now, I'm not saying any of his mentioned teammates, or their great, great grand kids, will ever be broke, but it's this type of spending mentality that leads to financial problems and why people who have to wait till Christmas to make a $500 purchase are shaking their heads and not shedding a tear when they hear an Antoine Walker story.
As for Giannis, who once asked Zaza if there's any way he doesn't have to give up half of his check to Uncle Sam, I'll gladly listen to any story from him.