Residential: Former NBA star Antoine Walker files for bankruptcy
(Crain's) — Former NBA All-Star and South Side native Antoine Walker has filed for personal bankruptcy protection after being hit with a $2.3-million foreclosure lawsuit on a mansion in south suburban Tinley Park that he bought for his mother.
Mr. Walker, 33, lists liabilities of $12.74 million vs. assets of $4.28 million in the bankruptcy filing. Mr. Walker's 2006 NBA championship ring, valued at $6,000, is listed among his assets, according to the Chapter 7 filing May 18 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Southern Florida.
The bankruptcy and foreclosure suit are the latest in a series of legal and financial woes for Mr. Walker, who reportedly earned more than $110 million during his 13-year NBA career, which included three trips to the All-Star game. Mr. Walker was arrested last July in Las Vegas, where he was accused of writing 10 bad checks for casino markers totaling $1 million, according to published reports. Late last year, a Las Vegas court deferred criminal charges and agreed to a payment plan for Mr. Walker.
Efforts to reach Mr. Walker were unsuccessful, and his lawyer in the bankruptcy didn't return a call Thursday.
In the bankruptcy petition, Mr. Walker says he is unemployed and without any monthly income. He retired from the NBA in 2008 and briefly played professional basketball this year for Puerto Rico's Guaynabo Mets.
Mr. Walker owns four properties: a $2.34-million home in Miami; two South Side apartment buildings each worth $190,000, and the Tinley Park home, valued at $1.4 million, according to the bankruptcy filing.
Mr. Walker's personal property includes two Range Rovers, a $20,000 designer watch and the NBA championship ring he won with the Miami Heat.
Secured creditors, owed $5.9 million, include Chicago-based Northern Trust Co., the lender on the Tinley Park mansion, and Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank, which has a first mortgage on Mr. Walker's Miami home.
Unsecured creditors are owed about $6.9 million. Mr. Walker's former agent, Chicago-based Mark Bartelstein, is listed among the unsecured creditors and is owed more than $458,000, according to the petition. Gambling losses include $770,000 owed to Harrah's in Las Vegas and $500,000 owed to Ameristar Casino in East Chicago, Ind.
The petition also lists $646,900 of gambling losses in 2008 and 2009, and shows that Nazr Mohammed, a Chicago native and center with the Charlotte Bobcats, paid $10,000 earlier this year to the law firm now representing Mr. Walker in the bankruptcy.
In Chicago, Northern Trust filed a foreclosure lawsuit May 13 in Cook County Circuit Court alleging that Mr. Walker defaulted on a $2.33-million mortgage for the 13,144-square-foot home in Tinley Park. The foreclosure suit alleges that Mr. Walker hasn't made the monthly mortgage payment for more than three months, and that the bank is owed more than $2.28 million in unpaid principal, interest and fees on the 2005 loan.
Mr. Walker's mother, Diane Walker, was named as a defendant in the foreclosure suit and also couldn't be reached. A lawyer representing Northern Trust in the matter declines to comment.
Eddie Baeb and Thomas A. Corfman contributed to this report.
