3<\/p>\n Laettner played with Jordan on the WizardsCredit: GETTY<\/p>\n Laettner was well rewarded for his time in The Association, too.<\/p>\n His 13-year tenure began with the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>, followed by stints with the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>, Detroit Pistons<\/a>, Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, Washington Wizards<\/a>, and Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n It left him with career earnings of around $61 million.<\/p>\n Laettner was a six-time All-Star and is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame,\u00a0U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, FIBA Hall of Fame, and College Basketball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n After retiring in 2005, Laettner pursued business with ventures into real estate, investment in Major League Soccer<\/a>, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, reality soon came crashing down for Laettner, who faced Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2016. <\/a><\/p>\n The former Duke star was fighting to avoid involuntary bankruptcy after five creditors filed a motion against him, claiming he owed $14.05 million.<\/p>\n It took almost two months for the issue to be resolved after those same creditors settled with Laettner<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of those five creditors included former Carolina Panthers<\/a> running back Jonathan Stewart and ex-Detroit Lions<\/a> linebacker Ernie Sims.<\/p>\n What’s worse about the situation is that it was not the first time Laettner ended up being sued by his fellow professional athletes.<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n Christian Laettner is considered a Duke legendCredit: GETTY 3<\/p>\n Laettner also played with Jordan on the Team USA Olympic teamChristian Laettner was sued by Scottie Pippen<\/p>\n In 2007, Laettner convinced Scottie Pippen <\/a>to join an investment group to purchase the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n That group included Laettner himself and his former Duke teammate Brian Davis.<\/p>\n However, the sale never went through, and Pippen looked to get his money back.<\/p>\n Laettner couldn’t repay Pippen, and it led to his former 1992 Olympic Dream teammate filing a lawsuit in 2010.<\/p>\n Pippen’s lawsuit was successful, and he was awarded $2.5 million, which Laettner and his group had to pay.<\/p>\n In 2016, a PR disaster unfolded when Pippen’s wife, Larsa, lashed out at Laettner on social media <\/a>for allegedly not repaying<\/a> the full amount.<\/p>\n Michael Jordan invented never-before-seen move mid-game that left announcers speechless<\/p>\n It’s not the first time Laettner has come into conflict with Pippen.<\/p>\n Laettner did not impress Pippen on the basketball court, and the Bulls icon made that clear when he didn’t want the Duke star in the 1992 Olympic Dream Team.<\/p>\n “I agreed with each pick except Laettner,”\u00a0Pippen\u00a0wrote in his 2021 autobiography \u00a0<\/p>\n “I didn’t think he would fit in, and I was right. The committee should have chosen another NBA player, and plenty were worthy. My preference was Dominique Wilkins.”<\/p>\n Laettner was the only collegian selected for the Olympic team that year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Laettner forged a legacy to be proud of in basketball. The New York native is widely considered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[38940,461,29909,38927,49,48,38921,38931,38934,38932,38933,547,2695,8028,38937,38935,38936,8722,8224,3004,38925,38929,38926,38922,38930,38924,14102,459,38928,7817,38923,525,38939,38938,82,35518,8027],"class_list":["post-59208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-1992-olympic-basketball-team","tag-basketball","tag-basketball-news","tag-basketball-throwback","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-christian-laettner","tag-christian-laettner-bankruptcy","tag-christian-laettner-earnings","tag-christian-laettner-lawsuit","tag-christian-laettner-sued","tag-college-basketball","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-ernie-sims","tag-followed-by-stints-with-the-atlanta-hawks","tag-jonathan-stewart","tag-jordan","tag-miami-heat","tag-michael-jordan","tag-michael-jordan-analysis","tag-michael-jordan-bulls","tag-michael-jordan-chicago-bulls","tag-michael-jordan-nbc","tag-michael-jordan-nbc-contract","tag-michael-jordan-news","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-nba-throwback","tag-nbc","tag-nbc-and-nba","tag-ncaa","tag-olympic-dream-team","tag-scottie-pippen","tag-sports","tag-stephen-a-smith","tag-washington-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Laettner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-97092063-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Christian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1238978901.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Laettner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-823881638.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n