Rick Reilly recently got a large stipend to move his belongings from Sports Illustrated to the Bristol-based company, ESPN.  Since he arrived at the World Wide Leader in Sports, I have not been wowed with any of his pieces.  Finally, I can find some interest in one of his write-ups.  Reilly just penned a piece for ESPN The Magazine, which looks at the grim reality that NBA players have a proclivity to lose their fortunes rather quickly.  Instead of 60% of NBA players filing for bankruptcy within retiring from basketball, Reilly offers his hand at ensuring that 100% of players in each league have a chance to lose their hard-earned money by following his ten step plan.  Here is one step that relates to our profession:

6. Hire an agent who sniffs a lot and/or is constantly checking the scores on his BlackBerry. Those are the kinds of guys who will suck up your dough like a street-sweeper. Ex-Knick Mark Jackson once had a business manager he thought he could trust. Turned out the guy was forging Jackson’s signature on checks—an estimated $2.6 million worth—to feed a gambling jones. “And it wasn’t like I was a rookie—I was a veteran,” Jackson says. The only reason he says he’s getting some money back is because he didn’t … [7. Sign over power of attorney]