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Hoops Star Told To Pay Bradenton Woman Child Support

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By TODD RUGER

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: June 20, 2008

SARASOTA COUNTY - Basketball star Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets must pay a Bradenton woman $54,156 a year in child support for their daughter, plus insurance and tuition, a circuit judge ruled.

The amount is far less than the $204,000 a year that Pearl Vega, 36, had argued would be more in line with McGrady's $21.6 million annual income and give their child a lifestyle more equal to that of McGrady's other children.

Circuit Judge Donna Berlin ruled that Vega had overstated the child's needs and has "used child support to enhance her personal lifestyle and that of her other two children."

"It is inappropriate for Ms. Vega to use child support as a means to further her education when she chooses to attend college as a full-time student and expect Mr. McGrady to pay for tuition, a full-time nanny and other domestic help," Berlin wrote in the decision.

Vega's attorney immediately filed a notice the mother would appeal.

At a trial, she highlighted exactly what it means to be the child of an NBA star:

McGrady shares a six-bedroom, 23,000-square-foot house with a pool near Houston with his wife and three children. He spends $5,000 a month on a chef and $1,732 for a housekeeper.

One of the children had a $16,000 birthday party for about 40 children, with a magician, clown, face painter, games and music.

McGrady and his family spend about $45,000 a month for personal travel, sometimes on private jets. The children went on trips to New York, North Carolina, Florida, Atlanta, California, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Mexico, the Virgin Islands and Rio de Janeiro.

They stay at Ritz-Carltons, have private preschool and tutors and get thousands of dollars' worth of clothes a month.

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