Ed McMahon could lose his Beverly Hills mansion if he doesn't make good on $4.8 million in mortgage loans. Evander Holyfield's 54,000-square-foot home in Georgia could be repossessed if he doesn't meet his $10 million loan obligation. (He's not broke, he insists, just not liquid.) The housing market and the recession aren't just affecting normal people like non-New Yorkers; they're affecting celebrities too. But a quick trip down memory lane reveals that, uh, celebrities go broke all the time. Especially athletes!

M.C Hammer. Kim Basinger. Michael Jackson. Even figure skater Dorothy Hamill. Bankruptcy comes with the free swag.

In January, the Toronto Star reported an estimated 60 percent of all NBA athletes "go broke" five years after retiring.

Without those eight-figure contracts, it can be hard to keep up with those country club dues and 12-car allowances. But why are professional athletes, seemingly, more susceptible to getting paintballed with red ink? (Latrell Sprewell had his yacht repossessed last year.)

Via Freakonomics comes this Q&A between Brian Cuban and Jordan Woy, "a highly respected sports agent and a principal in the sports marketing/management firm of Schlegel Sports":

I think there are several reasons why so many athletes “go broke”. First, whether it is a lottery winner, an athlete or a star entertainer, if they are not equipped with the knowledge on how to make and save money they are in trouble. When they didn’t earn it through disciplined business practices and they don’t have those skills they usually go through it quickly. Most lottery winners or athletes make a great deal of money in a short period of time. They start spending it on things that only go down in value (cars, jewelry, partying, entourage, etc) and start to evaporate the money they do have. They can carry this off until they stop earning big money. This is when the trouble starts. It is hard to believe that MC Hammer, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and now Ed McMahon are broke. These are people who earned hundreds of millions over time and it disappeared. Lavish spending and entourages were probably the downfall for the first three for sure.

Most athletes play for four to ten years if they are lucky. After they pay taxes (can be 40 to 50%) and agent fees and buy their first homes, cars, outfits, jewelry (plus, cars, clothes and jewelry for friends and family), they are left with very little. When they first “strike it rich” all of their longtime friends and family expect help. Most athletes feel obligated to help everyone out at first then they wise up. They also want to keep up with their teammates. If someone buys a Bentley, they have to buy one; if someone buys a $75,000 watch, they have to buy one to keep up the appearance. Then, of course, when the career ends and they are still living in a multi million dollar house, driving 3 expensive cars (and insurance), traveling in private planes and taking Limo’s when they go out on the town, reality sets in. The money dries up very quickly.

However, if athletes educate themselves, learn money management skills and make smart, safe investments along the way, they are usually in very good shape. After representing athletes for over 20 years, we call this our “life plan”. We take out clients on working vacations in the off season to places like Las Vegas, Cancun and on a cruise to the Bahamas to learn business networking. We have people from industries such as real estate, oil and gas, financial planning, credit repair, asset protection/estate planning, etc come to educate the players and their wives so they can learn about these business and also determine if they are interested in any of these industries for life after sports. One of the financial planners who comes always says most people die coming down from Mt. Everest not going up. The goal is for these athletes to get to their Mt. Everest AND to get down safely.