It is no surprise that Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green loves to speak his mind. In a recent interview with Maverick Carter on UNINTERRUPTED’S “Kneading Dough”, Green discussed the many challenges that young athletes face when dealing with a certain amount of money.
“My first-year salary was $850,000, and in the grand scheme of things, that seems like a lot of money, and it is,” Green told Carter. “I never got a financial advisor or anything like that. If I screwed up, I screwed up, but I wanted to learn how money works and having money work for me.”
“Even if it’s league minimum, it’s still a lot of money really quickly compared to the normal. Very often, you have an ability to walk before you run; that doesn’t work in this context.”
What Green is talking about is something that far too many athletes don’t take seriously. Time and time again, we see reports of how athletes sometimes go broke and lose all their money due to not being properly advised financially.
“The most important decision I made is surrounding myself with the team that I have,” Green said. In order to do that, he needed one piece of advice from his father, he said: “ask questions.” For Green, he signed a five-year deal for $85 million to remain with the Warriors. With all of that money, every decision that he makes will evidently lead to one thing. “Every decision I make is ‘how is this helping me become a billionaire?” Green told Carter.
Per an email to CNBC, Green wants the younger generation to know of the many responsibilities that come forth in finances.
“The one thing I would share with younger athletes is to always be curious and always continue learning,” Green wrote in an email to CNBC. “All young athletes should take the time to educate themselves and find the right mentors.”
