Former NBA player Latrell Sprewell once secured the number one spot on a list of Wisconsin’s top 100 delinquent taxpayers. Sprewell’s NBA career famously ended in 2005 after he scoffed at a three-year, $21 million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, publicly stating that the money offered would not be enough to feed his family. Now, the Wisconsin native owes more than $3.5 million in state back taxes.
The list, which is also known as the “Web Site of Shame,” was first launched by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue in 2006 to humiliate delinquent taxpayers into resolving their tax liabilities. The site has been relatively successful, collecting $17 million in back taxes in 2010.
Despite having a respectable NBA career – 13 years, four NBA All-Star games and an NBA Finals appearance – Sprewell is better known to the public for his antics. In 1997, he received a 68-game suspension from the NBA for threatening and choking then-Golden State Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo during a team practice.
Since his outlandish departure from the NBA almost seven years ago, Sprewell has, not too surprisingly, had some trouble managing his finances; his million-dollar yacht was repossessed – after he ran it ashore – and two of his homes were foreclosed upon. An ex-lover also sued him for $200 million and prohibited him from seeing his children.
Another former NBA player, Anthony Mason, holds the number three position on the list of state tax delinquents of more than $2 million.
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue does not post the accounts of taxpayers who have entered into a valid installment agreement, submitted an Offer in Compromise or filed for bankruptcy.