William Laimbeer Jr. was born on 19 May 1957, in Boston, Massachusetts,USA, and is a retired professional basketball player, best known for being part of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team, the Detroit Pistons. He won a few championships, and is also now known as the current coach of the WNBA team New York Liberty. His efforts in basketball have helped put his net worth to where it is now.
How rich is Bill Laimbeer? As of early-2016, sources estimate that his net worth is at $13 million, mostly acquired through a successful career in the basketball world. Aside from being a player and a coach, he’s had television shows, and a video game. He even became a color commentator for a brief period. All of these have helped in raising his wealth.
Bill Laimbeer Net Worth $13 Million
Bill attended Palos Verdes High School in southern California, but he was better known for playing the character Sleestak in the series “Land Of The Lost”, rather than playing basketball; he was mainly discovered because of his height and would later be known for playing at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, graduating with an economics degree. In 1979 Laimbeer was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers but opted to play in Italy for a year. He then played with the Cavaliers for two seasons before he was traded to the Detroit Pistons, where he became well known, but especially as a very physical player who commited hard fouls. Other than that, Laimbeer was also noted for being a Center who had very good outside-shooting skills, which benefitted the Pistons strategy greatly. He was voted into the all-star games four times, during 1983 to 1985, and then 1987. His greatest achievement with the Pistons however would be when he helped the team win the championship in 1989 and 1990. This roster was the only one to have winning play-off records against NBA legends including Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. Bill played a total of 14 seasons in the NBA, and was able to amass 10,000 points and rebounds, becoming the 19th player in NBA history to do so. He also had a 685 game streak, the fifth longest on record. In 1994, Laimbeer retired, and his jersey number was also retired by the Pistons.
After the NBA, Bill tried his hand at starting a business with his father. The company called Laimbeer Packaging Corp., focused on corrugated cardboard boxes but they had a hard time earning profit and soon closed. He became a color commentator and an analyst for ESPN in 2003 but eventually focused more on coaching. After some time, Laimbeer was offered to be a coach for the Detroit Shock WNBA team. The following year he would win a Coach of the Year award, leading the team to their first WNBA championship. In 2006, the Shock would again win the title, and they would get their third championship in 2008, however,iIn 2009, with the desire to become an NBA coach, he resigned from his position and was soon given an assistant coaching position with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but in 2012, Laimbeer once again returned to become a WNBA coach, this time of New York Liberty where he coaches today.
For his personal life, Laimbeer was known to have been born into a financially successful family, and according to him he is one of the few NBA players with father’s who are richer than him. While Laimbeer continues to serve as head coach, his personal life is mostly kept private – he has been married to Chris since 1978, but otherwise reveals little information on his private life.
