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Remember Vin Baker? Well He Now Runs A Starbucks After Blowing 100 Million Dollars In The NBA

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NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The world’s tallest, and perhaps most famous, barista is stationed behind a busy coffee counter. His smile and easy-going style welcome customers looking for their Starbucks fix as they fastbreak to work or South County’s beaches. “I love North Kingstown. It reminds me of my hometown, so it’s comfortable,” says the man, who stretches to 6-feet-11. “I like this community. Starbucks draws a lot of repeat customers and so many know me now.”

 

This is Vin Baker’s world these days. This is the same Baker who grew up in Old Saybrook, Conn., and went on to become one of New England’s all-time great collegiate basketball players at the University of Hartford. It’s the same Baker who won Olympic gold in 2000, played in four NBA All-Star Games and spent 13 years in the pros, including parts of two seasons with the Celtics.

It’s also the same Baker who battled alcoholism toward the end of his career. That addiction, plus a series of financial missteps ranging from a failed restaurant to simply too many hands dipping into his gold-plated cookie jar, combined to wipe out nearly $100 million in earnings. Now 43, newly married and with four children, Baker is training to manage a Starbucks franchise. He thanks CEO Howard Shultz, the former Seattle SuperSonics owner, with this opportunity. He’s also a trained minister who savors work at his father’s church in Connecticut. Most important, he has been sober for more than four years.

 

 

 

 

 

Damn, life comes at you fast. One second you’re an NBA star with 100 million dollars and the next you’re making a caramel frappucinno for a bitchy mom in Yoga pants. Fuck, that has to be brutal. Those Bucks teams with Vin and Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson were  always fun. Never really a threat but always enjoyable to watch. Now Vin is asking people if they want to add a turkey bacon egg white wrap to their order every morning while he bosses around some irresponsible teenager who doesn’t know how to work the register. I have to say in the grand scheme of things though, the fact that Vin is alive and seems to have things moving in the right direction is not only a shock but great news. Feel like there are more than a few Vin Baker’s out there who enjoyed the boom of NBA contracts without saving a dollar.

 

 

Million dollar question, or 100 million dollar question. Would you rather be a Vin Baker/Antoine Walker type or just a regular guy. Basically would you rather have 100 million dollars and lose it or never have that money to begin with and live blissfully ignorant of the lavish life. It’s probably a no brainer to take the fame and fortune even if it’s fleeting but that has to really suck to have 100 million dollars and then be working paycheck to paycheck like the rest of us. I would wake up every morning thinking about how dumb I was to blow that money.