FanHouse DerrickColeman

So, this is a little awkward. Over the weekend, FanHouse posted a link to an announcement advertising the "Derrick Coleman Estate Sale." Since people who have estate sales tend to be either a) dead; or b) in the poor house, we made the easy assumption that he'd fallen on hard times. We were wrong.

Unfortunately, that bad assumption reverberated across the blogosphere and into the MSM (at the very least, the NY Post and Chicago Sun-Times picked it up), eventually making its way to Coleman himself. From Chris Lau of the Detroit Free Press:

All the attention irked Coleman, the No. 1 pick in the 1990 NBA draft. He told the Free Press on Monday that the sale was for furniture from a Franklin Lakes, N.J., house he bought in 2001, when he played for the 76ers. Coleman said the furniture had been in storage since he moved back to Michigan.

"Here I am, trying to do something positive," Coleman said, referring to his business ventures, "and people spend all day calling my phone about a liquidation."

So yeah, he's not poor at all. In fact, he's so rich, he can't even fit all his stuff under one roof. And for the record, he is doing a lot of good things with his money, including investing in areas of Detroit that have been ignored by most developers for decades. Just yesterday, in fact, he opened the city's first Tim Horton's franchise.

So Derrick, consider this FanHouse's apology: we were wrong, you're still rich, and we couldn't be happier.

Update: Derrick Coleman does not have money problems after all.

Derrick Coleman is well-regarded (although that may be a misuse of the term) as one of the bigger busts in the history of the NBA. He was a stone-cold lock for first overall pick in 1990. He even averaged almost 17 and 10 over the course of his career, but semi-decent stats certainly don't make up for his promise.

Yada, yada, yada, Coleman opened up some shoe stores in the Detroit area after he retired and slowly amassed his NBA fortune into a gigantic financial empire. Or, um, perhaps not. Turns out, Coleman's not immune to the economy and is selling everything he owns at 75 percent off.

Sherwood has been selected to handle the liquidation of the entire house of furniture and accessories from basketball star Derrick Coleman. All contents are in excellent condition and displayed at our Warehouse for unbelievable savings.

Additionally -- as one would expect given the liquidation of everything he owns -- Coleman's shoe stores aren't doing so well either.

Peter Vecsey is one of the most respected columnists covering the NBA. One of the reasons he's so entertaining is because he often dabbles in rumors, which ostensibly come from a well-connected network of NBA sources (and, um, the occasional fan email). After this week, though, he may want to weed out his Rolodex.

Still stinging from a retraction he had to print about a ridiculous (and damaging) story about Sam Mitchell, Vecsey once again rushed a story to print without taking the time to verify actual facts. Today, Vecsey led off his column with a sad tale about how Derrick Coleman was in dire need of a heart transplant.

Some information is better left unlearned. Yet I wouldn't be doing my job justice if I didn't report that Derrick Coleman, 41 come June 21, is in urgent need of a heart transplant. Details are scarce, but the few collected are scary.

Toward the end of Coleman's 10-year NBA career, he was diagnosed as suffering from arrhythmia. The disorder was treated with medication and it stopped his heart from skipping a beat and alleviated his shortness of breath, etc.

For whatever reason, Coleman's condition severely worsened lately, hospitalizing one of the toughest hombres in league history. Only a couple of his closest friends - Charles Oakley and Ricky Mahorn - have been able to see him.

Actually, Peter, you wouldn't be doing your job if you simply re-printed rumor without verifying the facts. While it's true that has been hospitalized for the last 10 days with an irregular heart beat, his situation is hardly serious, let alone dire. Terry Foster of the Detroit News contacted Coleman to get his reaction, who said he was shocked to hear that he was apparently on his deathbed.