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http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=650452

Sprewell yacht repossessed
Former NBA star has defaulted on mortgage loan, bank says
By RICK ROMELL
[email protected]
Posted: Aug. 21, 2007
When a man has to think about putting food on the table, it can be difficult to keep a yacht.

Former professional basketball star Latrell Sprewell, who three years ago rejected a $21 million contract offer, calling it insulting and saying he had a family to feed, had his 70-foot, $1.5 million, Italian-built yacht repossessed Tuesday.

Armed with an order from U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Callahan Jr., a federal marshal seized the vessel in Manitowoc, where it sat in storage.

Callahan is presiding in a court case filed by a New York bank that claims the yacht's owner, a company run by Sprewell, has defaulted on a mortgage loan.

The firm, LSF Marine Holdings, hasn't made monthly payments of $10,322 on time and hasn't maintained the necessary insurance on the vessel, North Fork Bank alleges.

It wants the yacht, "Milwaukee's Best," sold to pay off the $1.3 million it says is remaining on the loan. Sprewell has guaranteed the loan personally, a contract filed with the court shows. He could not be reached for comment on the repossession.

A Milwaukee native, Sprewell, 36, played for 13 years in the NBA. He was known for a slashing style, steely intensity and a fierceness that sometimes got him in trouble - most notably when he was suspended during the 1997-'98 season for choking his coach.

Sprewell last played in 2004-'05 for the Minnesota Timberwolves. At the beginning of that season, he spurned the team's offer of a three-year, $21 million contract extension.

In the midst of Sprewell's acrimonious negotiations with the club, a reporter with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis asked him if he would be interested in playing out the final year on his existing contract, trying to win a title and then becoming a free agent.

"Why would I want to help them win a title?" the paper quoted Sprewell as saying. "They're not doing anything for me. I'm at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I got my family to feed. Anything could happen."

That sealed the end of his career with the Timberwolves, prompted a rebuke from NBA Commissioner David Stern and made Sprewell a symbol of fans' frustration with highly paid athletes divorced from everyday economic realities.

The four-time all-star played out the season, earning a reported $14.6 million, but hasn't returned to the league.

Sprewell's boat was built in 2001 by Italian firm Azimut-Benetti, a world leader in crafting so-called mega-yachts - ships that, at roughly 80 feet and up in length, can dwarf even "Milwaukee's Best." Documents filed in court indicate Sprewell bought the boat in 2003.

Sprewell, who owns a home in River Hills and has moored his yacht here, had to have the vessel freed by a tugboat last summer after running aground near Atwater Beach. He also has popped into the news at other times while afloat, including an occasion off Milwaukee in which he broke a hand about a month before the 2002-'03 season.

Bob Wolfley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Strip Poker 388

iTrader: (6)

insurance claim?

WARPARTY36

Dumba$$ has made 100 million in his short career and can't make a $10,000 a month payment??? With that kind of money, why would you even have a payment???

You can take the boy out of the hood............................

"Why would I want to help them win a title?" the paper quoted Sprewell as saying. "They're not doing anything for me.

They're not doing anything for him??? Other than paying him millions a year!!!

Magic34

At one point Pippen had a 55' Sea Ray Sedan Bridge. He bought it around the same time we bought ours. It had the same name you have listed.

Dude! Sweet!

You've got to give Spree credit on the name though! I'll bet it's one of the only Italian yachts named after "college beer"...

"Oh, that's my Abbatte 'Natty Light'..."

Roger 1

Maybe he thought that hurricane Dean would hit Milwaukee..

five cent worth

LOL - exactly what I was thinking...

bouyhunter

I'm long out of college and still drink "College Beer".
I actually prefer the fact that it is a lower aclohol percent.

None the less, the guy's a dumbazz.

Dude! Sweet!

That's why I put it in quotes! I like it because it's cheap and I can drink a lot of it!

bouyhunter

Exactly! It's actually cheaper than drinking bottled water, and you won't get hammered from it.
I still drink water along side it, but the cheap stuff let's you go all day without getting out of hand.