Why Are People All Up In Ms. Jones' Business - Us Included?
Marion Jones won a record five track and fields medals, including three golds, at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
The Los Angeles native snagged multimillion-dollar endorsement deals.
We where actually at a Macy's Passport event a few years back in Santa Monica, California where Jones bought a very, very expensive motorcycle for charity like she was buying a miniature one at Walmart (Don't trip, we love us some Walmart!)
Sitting literally a few feet away from her, we got the sense that the toy was for her baby boy's daddy Tim Montgomery, the "World's Fastest Human."
From the looks of things, life seemed pretty good. Then again, you know folks like to front in Hollywood!
Is that why folks are now whispering that Jones, the one-time millionaire, is broke?
MSNBC is reporting that Marion's bank account has dwindled down to a paltry $2,000 as she desperately tries to fend off court judgments, according to recent court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
A legendary American athlete of half Belizean and half African American descent, last year a bank foreclosed on her $2.5-million mansion in an area of Chapel Hill, N.C., where Michael Jordan was a neighbor.Jones, 31, was also forced to sell two other properties, including her mother’s house, to raise money.
The sistah's financial woes were revealed in a 168-page deposition in a breach-of-contract suit she filed in Dallas against veteran track coach Dan Pfaff.
Pfaff countersued and won a judgment against Jones for about $240,000 in unpaid training fees and legal expenses.
Legal bills have plagued Jones since 2003, when suspicions of drug use emerged and she was linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) after a federal raid.
Jones retained attorneys for her BALCO grand jury testimony, for negotiations with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in her fight to avoid being banned from competition, for a defamation lawsuit she filed against BALCO founder Victor Conte, who accused her of taking performance-enhancing drugs, and for taking on Pfaff in her breach-of-contract suit.
Jones' Agent, Charles Wells, Pleads Guilty To Bank Fraud - Faces Banishment
Last year, a Jones urine sample tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug EPO. Jones immediately quit a European track tour and returned to the United States.
Although she was cleared when a backup sample tested negative, she missed at least five major international meets, forfeiting an estimated $300,000 in appearance and performance fees.
In her prime, Jones was one of track’s first female millionaires, typically earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a race, plus at least another $1 million from race bonuses and endorsement deals.
In 2000-01, she competed in 21 international events, including the Sydney Olympics, where she won five medals — three gold.
Dubbed "the fastest woman in the world," Jones won the California state championship in the 100 meters four years in a row when she was just beginning to blossom in high school.She was invited to participate in the 1992 Olympic trials, and, after her showing in the 200m finals, would have made the team as an alternate in the 4x100m relays, but she refused the invitation.
After winning further statewide sprint titles, Marion accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina in basketball, where she helped the team win the NCAA championship in her freshman year.
When Jones lost a spot on the 1996 Olympic team because of an injury, she decided to concentrate on track and field.
The rest, as they say, was history!
Keep your head up Ms. Jones. If all this true, maybe God's just trying to tell you to slow your roll!