According to the Toronto Star, based on information from former National Basketball Association players, roughly ___ out of every 1,000 NBA players are broke within five years of retirement.

No googling, or if you heard the answer don't chime in please ... guesses only.

842

They gotta support all the babies mamas.

500

373

666

Define 'broke'.

FWIW, the article said 60% of players.

Once you ask the question, you start to guess high. But before I had heard that the question could be asked, I certainly wouldn't have.

I guess I kind of thought that because I could live on a one-time payment of say $1.5 million pretty easily for the rest of my life, these guys who make more than that on average for at least several years running could, you know, do OK.

The interesting thing, which I read about baseball players several years ago, is that I think they have to pay taxes to each state they play in. So a guy who's making the league minimum, although that sounds much higher than most normal people make, generally ends up not doing as well as everyone would think.

Then again, that could be off set by the fact that they get something like $80 in meal money per day. Yet, if you're a college coach and you buy your team a pizza, you're violating NCAA rules and could face sanctions. Different subject though.

These things always seem high but then are really not that interesting if you factor in that MOST players in professional sports you've never heard of. I heard somewhere that the average life of a running back in the NFL is less than 3 seasons and they average $500k in debt when they leave.