DeShawn Stevenson, guard for the Brooklyn Nets, has officially entered the annals of the Lavish Spending Hall of Fame. Lest he or his buddies be without pocket money, Stevenson has had an ATM (Automated Teller Machine, of course) installed in his house! The machine is said to keep Stevenson and his rich basketball player friends from having to make a stop before they go out – pretty cool, if you can afford it!
In case you're wondering, the machine cost $3,500 to install, is stocked with $20,000 in cash that Stevenson says he refills between four and six times a year. And DeShawn is nothing if not a savvy businessman: Presumably rationalized by the machine's ultra-convenient location, the basketball player has the machine programmed to charge a hefty $4.50 per transaction! It's not known if Stevenson himself pays this fee if he has to use the machine, but one thing's for sure: He can afford it!
If this seems like an unusual idea for an NBA player to have, Stevenson admits that it wasn't completely his idea. He stole it from professional skateboarder and reality TV auteur Rob Dyrdek, who was shown to have installed an ATM machine on an episode of his MTV reality series Rob & Big. Dyrdek had a slightly more practical reason for wanting an ATM in his house, though: He was tired of visitors placing bets that they didn't have the cash to pay – and he was also a little more ruthless than Stevenson, setting the ATM fee at five dollars per transaction!
Stevenson's reasons for wanting an ATM in his house are a little more innocent: He saw it on TV and thought it was cool. And if he makes a little extra money in ATM fees on the side? So be it. Stevenson: "I like doing things that aren't normal and it's cool to have." Mission accomplished!
