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NBA star Jimmy Butler has made more than $300 million over the course of his career, which is more than all but the biggest lottery jackpots. Despite his professional success, he's also a regular lottery player who frequently posts pictures and videos of himself purchasing tickets.
It's often said that professional athletes have won the genetic lottery because they are taller, faster, or stronger than the general population. However, even successful athletes with big dollar contracts can still feel the pull of winning a lottery jackpot.
While Butler has never scored a jackpot, several famous athletes have won big lottery prizes.
Agent Zero scores big
At the peak of his career as an NBA shooting guard, Gilbert Arenas was known as Agent Zero. He was an unstoppable and creative scorer who carved up opposing defenses with his signature combination of speed and finesse. During his twelve-year NBA career, which was cut short by a series of knee injuries, he earned over $160 million.
Despite earning a nine-figure fortune as a player, Arenas regularly buys lottery tickets, and like many players, he has his own specific rituals that he follows for every drawing. For example, he plays the same numbers for every game and buys all his tickets from the same gas station in Calabasas, California.
According to a story he posted on his Instagram account, in May 2020, he was on his way to purchase a ticket for one of his regular games when he encountered a problem. His favorite lottery retailer was closing in just a few minutes; he was almost out of gas and had left his wallet at his house.
He found $10 in his car and stopped to get gas. While waiting to fuel up, a homeless man approached him and asked for money. Arenas told him he was on his way to buy lottery tickets in Calabasas but that he would give him $5 and use the rest for gas.
The homeless man told Arenas that $5 wouldn't be enough to get to his store, so he should keep his money. He added that after Arenas won the lottery, he should return and give him $20. When Arenas told him he might not win, the homeless man told him he knew he would.
The NBA star refueled his car and raced to his favorite store, but he found it closed, and he was too late to buy a ticket for that day's drawing. Frustrated, Arenas returned home empty-handed.
However, the next day, when he returned to his lucky gas station to buy Powerball tickets, the owner ran out and excitedly told him that he had won a $300,000 lottery prize. Arenas said that was impossible since he hadn't bought a ticket, but the owner explained that he had purchased the ticket for Arenas using the numbers he played every time.
Arenas then returned to the gas station, where he met the homeless man and told him he had won, just as the man had told him he would. He gave the homeless man an unspecified amount of money, which sounds like it was much more than the $20 he had initially promised.
At the end of the story, Arenas writes:
I've given back to the homeless BUT never was blessed by one. His good-hearted gesture of me making it back home blessed that ticket.
Win big in Hollywood
Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson was used to being a long shot. As a high school football player, he went completely unrecruited and was a walk-on for tiny Langston University, which played in the low-level NAIA division. However, he was determined to excel on the gridiron and earned All-American honors twice as a defensive end in college.
The Dallas Cowboys selected him in the first round of the 1975 NFL draft. He went on to become a star defensive player, earning Pro Bowl honors and winning Super Bowl XII. However, his career was cut short after just seven seasons due to a combination of drug addiction and a neck injury.
Following his retirement, his life fell apart. He continued to struggle with drug addiction and was eventually arrested and sentenced to 28 months in state prison. However, using the same determination that pushed him from unheralded high school football player to NFL all-star, he committed himself to his sobriety and turned his life around.
He opened a non-profit dedicated to helping troubled youth in his hometown of Austin, Texas, and raised funds to support his high school by turning an old parking lot into a football field.
Henderson already considered his life a success story when he purchased $100 worth of Quick Pick tickets for the Texas lottery in March of 2000. He was playing golf when his ex-wife called and said someone had won the lottery with a ticket from the same pharmacy where he had purchased his. He checked his tickets and saw that one had the winning numbers: 5-8-17-35-38-41.
His ex-wife came over to double-check the numbers and fainted when she saw that he had won $28 million, significantly more than he had ever made as a football player.
When asked what he planned to do with the money, Henderson said he didn't plan on any dramatic changes:
I'm just going to continue to do the charities that I do, take care of my children, and buy my mama a Town Car.
Penalty kick
Kevin O'Connor was a talented young football player whose days were a whirlwind of training, games, and workouts. However, no matter where he played, he always made sure to spend time with his family in Ireland on the holidays. On one of these trips in 2017, his uncle gave him a ticket to the Irish lottery.
Weeks later, Preston's fullback heard from his mother that someone from their neighborhood had won the lottery, but he didn't dwell on the idea that he might have been the winner.
He told reporters:
After some searching, I sent them a picture of the ticket, but I never really believed that it was the winner of the one million euro prize. We had a game with Middlesbrough on Monday night, so I completely put it to the back of my head until after the final whistle.
Once the game ended, he spoke with his mother, who told him his ticket was the winner. O'Connor said:
It's been an incredible two days, and I don't think the win has sunk in yet. I have no immediate plans, but it will take a few days before we make any decisions.
However, even with the big win, his mind was never far from his real career, and he spent more time preparing for his next match than thinking about how he'd spend the money:
The important part of today was having my family with me so they will be at the forefront of any plans. My main focus at the moment is to help Preston climb the Championship and hopefully challenge for a Premier League spot over the next couple of months.
Slam dunk
Michael Graham only played one season of major college basketball, but it was one of the most memorable in sports history. He was a bruising power forward for the top-ranked 1984 Georgetown Hoyas, a team that included future NBA stars Patrick Ewing and Reggie Williams.
While he wasn't the team's best player, he made a reputation for himself through a combination of thundering dunks and his ability to physically dominate other players with his broad-shouldered, 220-pound frame. He was such a presence on the team that he was even featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
That year, he played a crucial role in leading the Hoyas to their first and only national championship. However, despite being a freshman, the finals were the last game he would ever play for the team. He struggled academically and was suspended from school.
He tried to restart his college career but ultimately decided to declare for the NBA draft. The Seattle Supersonics picked him in the fourth round. However, he was cut before making the final roster and spent several years bouncing around various semi-pro leagues.
By 2013, the hardwood was far in his rearview mirror. He was twice divorced and worked for a Rent-a-Center, where it was his job to deliver and recover various pieces of furniture that people rented.
He was driving to work when he stopped at a Shell gas station to use the restroom. He thought it would be polite to buy something, but nothing in the snack aisle looked good, so he bought a Powerball ticket instead. He asked to use the restroom but was told the gas station had no public one. That made him so mad he almost tore up the ticket but decided to hold onto it.
It never occurred to him that he could win, so he didn't check the numbers until the day after drawing. When he finally looked, he saw that he had picked all the winning numbers but missed the Powerball number, which meant the ticket was worth $1 million.
He took home approximately $750,000 and used the money to buy a new home and rebuild his life. Graham said he wants to use the money to write a new story by opening a restaurant he's calling Michael G's BBQ Backyard Grill. “I'm trying,” he told a reporter, “to get a great storybook ending.”
Intercept a fortune
Chuck Davis was a high school football star who earned a scholarship to play defensive back for the University of Virginia Cavaliers football team. As he started his first year with the team, he faced the same struggles as most student-athletes, trying to balance his academic responsibilities with his preparation for the upcoming season.
He was driving home after a brutal early-morning practice when he decided to stop at a 7-11 in Ashburn to pick up a coffee for his mother and a lottery ticket for himself. He was a regular lottery player, bought a Cash 5 ticket for $1, and chose the numbers 1-3-4-7-9, which his grandmother had suggested.
He found out later that day that his numbers were winners and his ticket was worth $100,000. Davis stated to reporters:
I definitely was shocked. I was in disbelief the whole day. I just couldn't believe that I actually won. It was almost like a movie.
He was concerned that the NCAA would make him ineligible to receive the money, but he later learned that the NCAA does not have rules governing lottery winnings.
“It's good. It's approved by the NCAA,” Davis said. “It's basically luck, so they can't have rules on it.”
While Davis says that he's saving most of his money for his future, he did admit to making one impulse buy with his money. “Oh yeah, I bought some Gucci flip-flops,” he told reporters after football practice.
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