Getty Image / Ezra Shaw
Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul is a very wealthy man. The Houston Rockets signed him to a 4-year contract extension worth $160 MILLION. When that contract comes to an end in 2022, Chris Paul will have made $346,527,220 in NBA contracts throughout his career (not including endorsements).
When he was a college baller at Wake Forest University he couldn’t even fathom having enough money to take out his friends and pick up the check. In fact, he couldn’t even go on a date without splitting the check. He recently spoke with CNBC about getting his first NBA paycheck, it was a $25,000 advance from his agency. They’d initially offered him a $100,000 advance after he declared for the NBA Draft after his sophomore year at Wake Forest, but Chris Paul’s parents said $25,000 was more than enough for him. Here he talks about how that money changed his life forever. He didn’t go out and buy a new car or watch, he just did something generous:
“[T]hat was the day my life changed,” Paul, 33, said.
The first thing he did was go shopping. “I took my girlfriend, my best friend, his girlfriend [and] we went to a mall and we went into a couple stores and I was like, ‘Just get something,'” said Paul.
“[There’s] no feeling like it,” he explained. “Because we used to go on double dates to TGI Fridays, and when they would come with the bill, we’d be like ‘Two bills, please,’ you know me and my girl, him and his girl.
“That day, and ever since, it’s been one bill.” (via)
This kind of makes me like Chris Paul even more. Knowing that the first big money he ever got in his life he turned around and spent it on his friends because he wanted to do something nice.
Chris also talked about how he hates credit cards to this day:
“My mom called me and was like, ‘Boy, you used that credit card yet?’ and I was like, ‘No, Ma,”’ recounted Paul. “I just never liked the whole premise of having a credit card and being able to spend money that you don’t have. I had my debit card, and so I just liked to spend money I knew I had. And that’s when my mom told me that no credit is bad credit.
“I still don’t like credit cards to this day,” he said, explaining that while he has a credit card and uses it, it took some convincing from his financial advisor. (via)
It’s amazing that Chris Paul and I both got the same financial advice from our mothers while we were in college but now he’s earning $346,527,220 in NBA contracts and I’m here writing about how successful he is.
You can check out the full interview with CNBC HERE.