HoopsHype.com Rumors

Retired NBA All-Star Vincent Baker claims his financial adviser lost nearly all of his $86 million nest egg through negligent investments. Baker signed a 7-year, $86.6 million contract with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1999. He scored 11,839 points and had 5,867 rebounds in a 14-year pro career. He was selected for four straight All-Star Games and played on the Dream Team that won gold in the 2000 Olympics. Courthouse News

Law, Vin Baker 

He hired Donald S. Brodeur Jr. and Brodeur & Co. Certified Public Accountants in 1997, to manage his finances, according to his complaint in Middlesex County Court. Brodeur & Co. (B&C) advertises its services to professional athletes on its website. A visit to the site this morning found this statement: "Over the past seventeen years, we have developed a specialization in the area of Athlete Accounting by providing accounting, tax, and advisory support to professional sports agents and athletes in the NBA, MLB, and NFL." Courthouse News

Law, Vin Baker 

His 13-year NBA career included stops in Boston, New York, Houston and Los Angeles (Clippers). He averaged 15 points and just over seven rebounds per game over those years. “I’m proud of my NBA career, the majority of it, on the court,” Baker said. “But I’m not satisfied with what happened off the court.” Baker’s NBA career was likely less productive than it could have been had he been able to stay away from alcohol. His drinking problem began in Seattle and hastened his departure from Boston before eventually ending his pro career. The Bulletin

Coaching, Vin Baker 

Personal life in shambles, Vin Baker’s NBA career ended in 2006 on a disappointing note. Five years later, Baker is well on the way to putting his life back together. Right now, in part, that means coaching the ninth grade team at his alma mater, Old Saybrook High School in Connecticut. “I want young people to understand that you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others,” Baker says in the newest issue of SLAM, SLAM 148. “You have to take care of yourself spiritually, emotionally and physically. It’s just that simple.” SLAM

Coaching, Vin Baker 

During halftime of a February game, with photographer Jesse Burke in the house to shoot Baker for the magazine, the four-time All-Star “had to get all Knute Rockne” on his players, verbally cajoling the ninth graders to step up their game in the second half. “You guys got to ride for each other.” Baker implored his kids. “I can not play for you today, I can’t.” SLAM

Coaching, Vin Baker 

Six years after the Boston Celtics terminated him for violating his alcohol treatment program, a near-broke Vin Baker has come to terms with how alcoholism and depression squandered a 13-year career — and an $87 million contract. While promoting a book he’s written about his ordeal, Baker admitted in an appearance on Connecticut’s Stan Simpson Show that he began to recognize the existence of a problem before the 2002 trade that sent him from the Seattle SuperSonics to the Celtics. “Towards the end of my Seattle career, when I was traded to Boston, I knew something was going on that I had to change,” Baker told Simpson. “At the time, I really couldn’t change it, because it’s a disease. It affects 18 million Americans. At the time, I didn’t know what was going on. I had to fix it. It was a situation where the support system around me was tough.” WEEI.com

Vin Baker 

In Boston, Baker sunk deeper into the diseases that had already derailed a promising career. In just 89 games over two seasons, he averaged only 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds before being suspended from the team when coach Jim O’Brien smelled alcohol on his breath during a practice. Baker said he wanted to change, but couldn’t. “I had to figure out a way to make it right,” Baker said in his appearance on the Connecticut FOX affiliate. “I couldn’t make it right. The Celtics – a great organization – they worked with me, but with my issues I didn’t take the time I needed to take to make it right.” It’s a shame Baker’s career fell off so sharply and abruptly, considering that four-year stretch — averaging 19.7 points and 9.6 rebounds — before a 1998-99 NBA lockout that saw the New England native balloon to 300 pounds. “When you’re doing certain things on the court, a lot of times people just trust your talents,” Baker added in the interview. “They don’t know what’s going on inside your heart and your mind, and it becomes very difficult to relay to people that, you know, I might be struggling with something. Entertainers, basketball players, NFL players - sometimes it gets to a point where they don’t understand who you are as a person. They just look at the money, the power, the fame.” WEEI.com

Vin Baker 

Former NBA Vin Baker talked exclusively on "The Stan Simpson Show" about how alcoholism and personal problems derailed his 13-year NBA career and contributed to him squandering more than $80 million. "[I am] at a point in my life where I want to be educational and spiritual to other people," said Baker. He talked about how straying from his upbringing caused his problems and how people were reluctant to help. "Success came fast for me, and a lot of times people will look at you and say 'this is our guy, our hero' -- but heroes fall. Heroes have problems, heroes have situations that they go through. A lot of times people don't jump to help heroic people. '' Baltimore Sun

Vin Baker 

With such a wealth of experience, both good and bad, to convey to younger players, it was somewhat of a natural progression for Baker to make his first foray into coaching this past winter. The former University of Hartford star was a student assistant for the Texas Southern men’s basketball team, which plays in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Working alongside fellow former NBA all-star Nick Van Exel, Baker thoroughly enjoyed moving over to the coaching side of things. “I loved it,” he said Wednesday night, prior to playing for the Simoniz All-Stars in a Greater Hartford Pro-Am league game. “It’s a transition, but I loved it, just working with the kids (on) understanding the game. I was there with Van Exel. To be on the floor with him, (teach) things that I know about the game, trying to get their IQ up on the game is fun. And, obviously, being around the kids is great, too.” Middletown Press