Ex-NBA Star Paul Pierce Accused of Dodging $180K Poker Debt
Famous American NBA players are often mentioned in the poker community. Despite the fact that popular basketball players earn tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars, they sometimes manage to get into debt or even not pay their bills.
One such example was the ex-star of American basketball, the famous player of the "Boston Celtics", as well as a member of the NBA Hall of Fame – Paul Pierce. Last year it became known that Paul owed his friend 180 thousand dollars after a home game.
Long story short, Pierce was invited to a home game by his friend Stephen Carmona. That night, the ex-Boston Celtics player borrowed $150,000 from Stephen first, and after the loss, another $40,000. As you might guess, Pierce is much better at basketball than he is at poker.
It is known that the member of the NBA Hall of Fame returned only $10,000 to Carmona, after which he refused to repay the debt. It remains a mystery why the athlete, who earned more than $200,000,000 during his career, could not settle this matter with his friend. But the situation reached the court and the hearings lasted more than a year.
Recently, an end was put to this feud – Carmona finally gave up all claims regarding Pierce's debt. As it turned out, this was the only correct decision, because he would not be able to get his money via court anyway.
The thing is, in California, collecting gambling debts is usually impossible from a legal point of view. Exceptions are possible only in the case of licensed gambling establishments. No liability is assumed for debts incurred in informal or illegal games.
Because Pierce borrowed the money during a private poker game, he remained "clean" in the law's eyes. Both sides did not provide comments, but it is clear that hardly anyone else wants to give the NBA star money for the game.