In June of 1995, the Golden State Warriors selected University of Maryland power forward Joe Smith with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Four months later, at the age of 20, he signed a three-year contract worth $8.5 million.
Smith went on to play for 11 other NBA teams over a 16-year career in which he amassed $61 million. But not long after he retired in 2011, nearly all of his fortune was gone. At one point, he shockingly had only $3,000 in the bank.
“Any kind of low stages that you can go through, I’ve probably been through it,” says a melancholy Smith during the CNBC television special “Back in the Game.