Lockout Picture
The NFL in March locked out its players, who earn on average about $1.8 million a year. Billy Hunter, the executive director of the union that represents players in the NBA, where the average salary is almost $6 million, has said he expects owners to impose a lockout when their labor contract expires on June 30.
Hunter's union distributed a 56-page lockout survival guide to its more than 400 members that includes money-saving tips such as refinancing mortgages and turning off lights at home. Page 21 is devoted to alimony and child support, issues that affect as much as 80% of professional athletes, says Frank Brickowski, 51, a former NBA player and divorced father of one who is now a regional director for the National Basketball Players Association.
Brickowski has urged active players to get prenuptial agreements so that child support and alimony don't become issues. His campaign has been helped, Brickowski said, by the popularity of Kanye West's "Gold Digger," a song about the perils of relationships with women more interested in money than love.
Kemp's Kids
Brickowski once was a teammate of Shawn Kemp, who was the subject of a Sports Illustrated cover story that said he had seven children with multiple women. According to Brickowski, on trips to Los Angeles there would be three women sitting behind the basket with children, all of them Kemp's.
Kemp's agent, Tony Dutt, didn't return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment. Colin Bryant, Dutt's partner at Dutt Sports Services Inc., in a telephone interview said the two have recently discussed modification requests "extensively."
Kemp in 2005 told the Seattle Times that he never missed a child-support payment.
The National Center for Health Statistics said it doesn't calculate a nationwide U.S. divorce rate.
"I tell the players that in divorce, on average, the woman gets 70% of a man's wealth," Brickowski said, without giving a basis for the figure. "That gets their attention. But not as much as Kanye."