How Glenn Robinson III has learned to not go broke

One former Indiana Pacers center was such a good financial planner that he was featured in Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine profiled Jeff Foster, the unheralded world-class rebounder, not for his ability to grab loose balls, but because he was just as dedicated to the balance sheet.

Unfortunately, Foster isn’t the norm.

Too many professional basketball players — and all professional athletes — blow through their vast salaries and end up having little financial security to show for their years in the league.

Glenn Robinson III is one young player who doesn’t have nearly the room for error that now-broke former-All-Stars had. So even if he doesn’t ever earn a big-time contract, he is trying to ensure that he doesn’t follow in the footsteps of many who came before him.

Robinson III, who signed with the Pacers this summer but will still be battling for job security in the preseason, was featured in a recent CBS report about money management, as reported by Pacers.com.

"The report, “Going For Broke,” examined the issue and showed a place that’s attempting to change the trend of reckless spending among young athletes: Michigan University. While attending Michigan, Pacers newcomer Glenn Robinson III took part in a financial literacy class for aspiring athletes at the Ross School of Business taught by Len Middleton.“I was in shock, I almost walked out of the class crying,” joked Robinson, after seeing how much spending money is actually left once taxes and retirement planning is accounted for. “There are some guys in the league that don’t even know the PIN to their bank account, they just expect for the people that’s handling their money to be able to keep track of that. And they trust them.”The class helped Robinson understand that the influx of money experienced upon entering the league won’t last forever, and has allowed him to exercise more caution when planning for the future.When Cowan asked Robinson, “Why don’t you think more colleges aren’t doing classes like this?”Robinson replied: “That’s a great question. I have no idea.”"

On the one hand, it’s nice to see an NCAA program trying to actually help prepare its “student athletes” for real life. On the other, this is stuff that should be commonplace and should have been mandatory for decades now.

Nevertheless, Glenn Robinson III got a good lesson. And hopefully between this and watching his dad go through the NBA, he’ll keep an eye on his spending and realize that the number on his check isn’t a license to live life like Sir Richard Branson or Mikhail Prokhorov. Millions aren’t billions, and while that should be obvious, it has taken way too many people making mistakes for the younger generation of players to learn.

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