You know what always makes me think? The Life of Reilly.

For the uninitiated, Rick Reilly was the last thing you read in Sports Illustrated every week. Reilly made us laugh, made us cry and made us angry when athletes were greedy or disloyal.

Then he left for a mega-deal at ESPN.

The irony aside, Reilly is the pulse of sports but rarely does he cover the big stories. He finds the small ones that wow us, and Reilly’s latest column certainly wowed me.

The latest Life of Reilly reads, “Filing for bankruptcy is a long-standing tradition for NBA players, 60% of whom, according to the Toronto Star, are broke five years after they retire.”

Take a second, think about it. The minimum salary for NBA players is $300,000. You’re telling me six out of ten men with, at the minimum, a high school diploma can’t manage to live on six figures? You’re telling me that these players, many of whom came from nothing, could be that irresponsible with the riches they worked a lifetime to achieve?

I believe it.

Watch an NBA game, and you’ll see a combination of selfishness and lack of intellect usually reserved for Paris Hilton’s social gatherings. You’d think that the NBA game would be a souped-up version of the Final Four: ferocious defense, well-organized offenses, five finely-tuned athletes combining to form one cohesive unit. Not so.

The whole culture of the NBA is selfishness. Why do players change teams? Money, lack of shots, failing relationships with coaches/teammates/fans. Take Baron Davis. Apparently, $17.8 million didn’t buy the Warriors any loyalty from their star point guard.

The reason? Players don’t want to be players, they want to be ballers. And where do ballers end up? SportsCenter.

Rick Reilly once called ESPN the “biggest four letter word in sports.” I’m glad this problem isn’t cyclical or anything…