“During the 2008-09 season, the Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons paid him nearly $21 million, the highest single-season salary of Iverson’s career. But two years later, much of that — and most everything else in a vast, $155 million fortune in NBA salary alone — was mostly gone,” writes author and Washington Post writer Kent Babb in his new book titled, Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson.
Born and reared in Hampton, Virginia, Iverson had achieved the American Dream, starting from the bottom and rising to the top. Once the cream of the crop, the former Philadelphia 76ers point guard lost his fortune and fame due to poor lifestyle choices. This isn’t just Iverson’s fate, it’s the fate of other athletes who have no marketable professional skills. Babb writes, “A combination of financially supporting family members and friends, a lack of knowledge about money management, and failed investments became a common and sad end to many of the athletes once among America’s richest.”
The 320-page tale chronicling Iveron’s rise and fall, including his ex-wife, Tawanna, having to pawn 42 pieces of jewelry to make ends meet, will be available on June 2, 2015.
