It was all good just a decade ago.
I wish athletes would read this paragraph slowly about Shimmy Walker and then think twice about buy hologram chains and punching women in the club ALLEGEDLY.
The air is thick with the smell of smoke. The blinds are drawn. A lighter sits on the coffee table, next to a giant jug of Crystal Geyser water. Unlit incense sticks are nearby. On the TV a game of NBA 2K12 is paused in the second quarter—the Pacers versus the Spurs. There is a large box of Cheez-Its on the floor and bagged-up cartons of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the corner. Boxes of Corn Pops and Cap’n Crunch line the top of the refrigerator.
In five hours Walker will take the court for the Idaho Stampede of the NBA’s Developmental League. For now he has agreed to talk about how and why he came to be here—a three-time All-Star living in a $915-a-month apartment he shares with reserve guard Chris Davis, and playing for a salary of less than $25,000. He has no car, subsists mainly on cold cuts and fast food and plays in front of crowds as small as 155.
It gets worse.
As you can see from the picture, Shimmy Walker is well over his ideal playing weight. He is shooting 36% from the field and 50% from the free throw line in the D League.
If he was trying to make an impression on NBA teams, the one he is making is to stay as far away from him as humanly possible.
In case you forgot Walker made almost $110 million in NBA salaries alone.
If you want to add insult to injury, Walker is the one who put Evelyn Lozada on the map and now she makes 20x the amount of money he does.
It is a cold world, now let’s Shimmy.