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I was listening to some people talk about Spree the other day and was wondering whats going on with him lately.............and found this =
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=650452
Sprewell yacht repossessed
Former NBA star has defaulted on mortgage loan, bank says
By RICK ROMELL
rromell@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 21, 2007
When a man has to think about putting food on the table, it can be difficult to keep a yacht.
Former professional basketball star Latrell Sprewell, who three years ago rejected a $21 million contract offer, calling it insulting and saying he had a family to feed, had his 70-foot, $1.5 million, Italian-built yacht repossessed Tuesday.
Armed with an order from U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Callahan Jr., a federal marshal seized the vessel in Manitowoc, where it sat in storage.
Callahan is presiding in a court case filed by a New York bank that claims the yacht's owner, a company run by Sprewell, has defaulted on a mortgage loan.
The firm, LSF Marine Holdings, hasn't made monthly payments of $10,322 on time and hasn't maintained the necessary insurance on the vessel, North Fork Bank alleges.
It wants the yacht, "Milwaukee's Best," sold to pay off the $1.3 million it says is remaining on the loan. Sprewell has guaranteed the loan personally, a contract filed with the court shows. He could not be reached for comment on the repossession.
A Milwaukee native, Sprewell, 36, played for 13 years in the NBA. He was known for a slashing style, steely intensity and a fierceness that sometimes got him in trouble - most notably when he was suspended during the 1997-'98 season for choking his coach.
Sprewell last played in 2004-'05 for the Minnesota Timberwolves. At the beginning of that season, he spurned the team's offer of a three-year, $21 million contract extension.
In the midst of Sprewell's acrimonious negotiations with the club, a reporter with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis asked him if he would be interested in playing out the final year on his existing contract, trying to win a title and then becoming a free agent.
"Why would I want to help them win a title?" the paper quoted Sprewell as saying. "They're not doing anything for me. I'm at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I got my family to feed. Anything could happen."
That sealed the end of his career with the Timberwolves, prompted a rebuke from NBA Commissioner David Stern and made Sprewell a symbol of fans' frustration with highly paid athletes divorced from everyday economic realities.
The four-time all-star played out the season, earning a reported $14.6 million, but hasn't returned to the league.
Sprewell's boat was built in 2001 by Italian firm Azimut-Benetti, a world leader in crafting so-called mega-yachts - ships that, at roughly 80 feet and up in length, can dwarf even "Milwaukee's Best." Documents filed in court indicate Sprewell bought the boat in 2003.
Sprewell, who owns a home in River Hills and has moored his yacht here, had to have the vessel freed by a tugboat last summer after running aground near Atwater Beach. He also has popped into the news at other times while afloat, including an occasion off Milwaukee in which he broke a hand about a month before the 2002-'03 season.
I still cant really fathom what lead him to reject that contract..............it may not have been what he was used to but at 33 years old, 7 million a year..........
I dont think this Yacht business is saying that he is broke............but imagine if he was! talk about devine justice for your greed!.............such a shame, he was my favourite player in the league for years, even when he left the Warriors (as bad as that was!) I still followed him.
Ohh well, lets hope that alot guys have learnt from his mistake and dont get so god damned ridiculously greedy.............and stupid enough to say "Im rejecting this cuz I gotta feed my kids"............like 7 mil aint enough to do that with.
