Allen Iverson Has Already Become A Sad Cautionary Tale

We got so caught up watching Boston terrorism developments last week that we missed the Washington Post’s profile of post-basketball Allen Iverson. It’s not pretty.  (And also not all that new: Check out Robert Huber’s 2011 profile.) Iverson is broke, divorced, and unresponsive to old friends (and nemeses) like Larry Brown,who have received no responses when they try to reach out to him.

Iverson kept living as if another contract was imminent, and Tawanna struggled to curb his spending. According to a bank statement submitted in the divorce, the couple’s checking account was overdrawn by more than $23,000 in July 2011. In a single day, $23,255.36 was deducted – at a diamond store, a hat shop, a steakhouse and a hotel.

Tawanna testified that her checks bounced that month when she paid for housing and electricity. She sold jewelry and Tiaura’s car to pay for household expenses, including school clothes and supplies.

Before their home in Denver was foreclosed, Tawanna testified, she sold more jewelry at a pawn shop to pay toward debt. Iverson owed thousands to a Georgia home builder, was hit with tax liens, and his wages were garnished to settle a nearly $860,000 balance with a jeweler.

One bright side: Under the terms of an old endorsement deal, Iverson has $30 million in a trust fund waiting for him when he turns 55. Assuming he survives that long—or hasn’t gone, you know, $30 million in debt by then—he’ll probably end up ok, unlike most people you know who willfully keep making bad decisions. Even at his worst moments, it seems, Iverson is living a semi-charmed kind of life.