You're all forgetting Sam Dalembert. $10-12 million a year is a hefty price to pay for 10 points and 9 rebounds a game.
Juwan was a decent player in his prime. If he wasn't so overpaid, he would have gotten a lot more love from the fans. Garnett was (and still is) overpaid too. But since he is KG, nobody really question how much he makes. His contract was one reason Minnesota never got a very good team.
And how many people in the league last season averaged more than 10 points and 9 rebounds a game? Big men who can play are rare these days. 10 and 9 a game is worth 10 million a year on the fair market today.
Yup yup yup....and next i'm sure you're going to tell me that the Mavericks are getting good value for what they paid in Erick Dampier, right?
That list sounds about right. We can throw Rashard Lewis in there. I'd rather give Tyson Chandler $10mil+ before I hand it over to Sammy Dalembert or Ben Wallace. Even Nene proved he's worth $10mil. Who the hell gave Kwame Brown $9mil/year!? Honorable mentions: Larry Hughes (12mil) Eric Dampier (10mil) Troy Murphy (10mil) Jason Williams (9mil) Shawn Marion (16mil) Darius Miles (9mil) Nesterovic (8mil) - good job Spurs
Thats what you get for playing well in contract season, look at bonzi who wanted a lot more than what he is having now. Anyway, jason williams is worth every penny, until he got that injury..... That someone that gives kwame 9m is the Royal Airness himself.......
Actually, it was the Lakers in 2005 as he was part of a sign and trade for Atkins and Butler. Jordan wasn't with the Wizards then, anyway.
Of course nobody questions what he makes. Garnett is KG. You know, the MVP caliber player and, for consecutive seasons, the only reason to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves? And there were far heavier reasons the Wolves were not able to assemble a championship team. McHale a lot of dumb moves (them hiring McHale was a mistake in the first place). He lost five consecutive first round picks because of salary cap violations. They gave away Sam Cassell for absolute fodder. They took Foye instead of Roy. You could even argue they overpaid for Mike James.
I'm not sure the author should've set a minimum salary to qualify. I'd rather have several of those $10-13M contracts than, say, Jerome James at $5.4M.
I thought that Glenn Robinson had more to do with the implementation of the NBA Rookie Contract Scale than J Howard did. Calculus 101: Introductory math for NBA rookies Eddie Griffin, who could be the first overall pick in next month's NBA draft, has only taken a handful of college classes, but he doesn't need an A in calculus to negotiate his own contract without an agent or attorney. Eddie Griffin doesn't know how high his stock will go, but once drafted he should know what he'll make as an NBA rookie. It's that easy. Simply pick up a copy of the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, flip to "Rookie Scale Contracts for First Round Picks," punch into a calculator the salary corresponding to his draft position and add the permitted 20 percent bonus to each year. Then fill in the blanks on the contract. The rookie salary scale was implemented prior to the 1995 draft by the NBA and the National Basketball Player's Association, a year after overall No. 1 pick Glenn Robinson signed a 10-year, $68 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks out of college. CBA rules now force first-round picks to play at a predetermined pay structure for at least three years before becoming a free agent. All three years of the contract are guaranteed. "Every contract is just a form agreement. My plummer could negotiate a first-round pick's contract as good as the best negotiator in the country can," said agent Keith Kreiter, who represents Robinson's teammate and Bucks backup guard Rafer Alston. With the values clearly spelled out pick-by-pick, the days of needing a crafty negotiator appear to be over in the NBA. That is, until some three or four seasons down the road, when the player can shop himself to the highest bidding team. "It used to be that it came down to good negotiation on the part of the agent," said Merle Scott, the agent for Toronto Raptors star Vince Carter. "But now (with the rookie scale) those skills have been taken away, so that puts the average agent on par with the David Falks and Arn Tellems of the basketball world." Agents vs. lawyers Many agents believe a player gains a competitive edge when they retain an agent rather than an attorney to represent them. Some agents claim lawyers aren't tapped into the sports world, aren't familiar with the personalities of a team's front-office personnel and do not understand tryout strategies necessary to ensure a player is drafted early in the first round. The lack of an agent, they say, could have caused a prospect like Corey Maggette, who hired an attorney to review his contract, to slip in the 1999 draft. Some think the former Duke standout – projected as an top-10 pick – slipped to No. 13 because of poorly planned workouts. Agents often advise top players to skip group workouts and instead hold private tryouts for NBA scouts. One bad workout, the theory goes, can do more damage in a group setting than in front of a single team's personnel. – Darren Rovell It was another Milwaukee Bucks player who put agents on edge two years ago. Ray Allen – with the help of Johnny Cochran at $500 an hour – negotiated his own $70.9 million contract extension (the maximum deal allowed) with Milwaukee owner Herb Kohl. "I'm not bringing (on) anybody that's going to reap all the benefits of what I've tried to put together for the first three years of my career, and they just come in and get that whopping percentage," Allen told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" in April 1999, two months after signing the contract. After Allen's success without an agent, the word was out, and many players began talking about negotiating the contract themselves. "Next time around ... I might not get anybody, I might do it myself," said Allen Iverson, who fired David Falk months before the program's inception. But most league veterans haven't dumped their agents just yet. And draftees still seem to prefer agents to represent them at the bargaining table. But why do first-round picks bother to pay agents when their salary range is dependent on where the player is selected in the draft? The prevailing opinion seems to be that players need someone to organize their off-the-court life and the agent takes care of it all – from contracts to endorsements to investments and even prenuptial agreements. "Signing a minimum contract means that the player, financially speaking, qualifies as a mid-size corporation," Kreiter said. "So just to have one attorney to do the contract is ridiculous." In addition to Cochran, Allen had a personal lawyer, an accountant and a business manager on his payroll. Agent Bill Duffy, who represents recent first-round draft picks Michael Olowokandi (1st, 1998), Joel Pryzbilla (9th, 2000), Rasho Nesterovic (17th, 1998) and Craig "Speedy" Claxton (20th, 2000), said agents can play an important factor in leveraging a client's potential and even can help secure a higher selection in the draft. Duffy is the American agent for Yao Ming, who emerged as a possible No. 1 pick this year, before it was decided he would stay with his Chinese team until at least the 2002 draft. Ray Allen Ray Allen said he didn't feel he was in over his head when he negotiated his contract without an agent. "Half the GM's have never seen Yao play at all and only three guys have seen him play in Shanghai," Duffy said. "Every one is saying he would have definitely been the No. 1 pick and I've played a part in creating that hype." Duffy said it's not like he hasn't pushed his client to the top before. "Nobody knew who Michael Olowokandi was, and everyone was saying he was a top-five pick despite the fact that he played at University of Pacific. People questioned the top-notch competition he played against," Duffy said. Speculation remains that top power-broker agents with a healthy client roster help manipulate the draft by promising future deals for a higher draft position. But some agents deny such practices happen very often. "No one says, 'If you don't take my player third, there's no chance you are getting Grant Hill in the free-agent market,'" said Lon Babby, whose clients include Hill, Tim Duncan and Shane Battier, a projected first-round pick this year. "That's the ultimate conflict of interest and what would I say to my client if the team calls my bluff? 'Oh, you can't play there?'" "I might have a rapport with the Raptors because of Vince (Carter), but if I have a player that's a trash player, they're not going to take him," Scott said. "It only happens if they're comparing apples to apples, player vs. player, and the two are similar." NBA Salary Cap FAQ 41. First round draft picks operate under a different set of rules? Yes. There's a strict salary scale for first round draft picks and their first contracts. They do this because it was previously common for rookies to hold out, not signing with their team until they got the contract they wanted. There was also backlash from the veteran players who saw rookies with no NBA experience getting more money than they were. The last year without a salary scale was 1994, when it was rumored that first overall pick Glenn Robinson was going to hold out for $100 million, and he eventually signed a 10-year, $68.15 million contract.* Beginning in 1995, salaries for first round picks were set according to a strict scale, determined by their exact draft position. The salary scale is determined for all picks in all seasons when the CBA is written. Rookie scale contracts are always for two seasons, with team options for the third and fourth seasons. Here is an example showing the scale salary figures for the #1 overall draft pick in each season from 2005-06 through 2011-12: Season 1st year salary 2nd year salary 3rd year option salary 4th year option (% raise over 3rd year salary) Qualifying offer (% raise over 4th year salary) 2005-06 $3,617,100 $3,888,300 $4,159,600 26.1% 30.0% 2006-07 $3,751,000 $4,032,400 $4,313,700 26.1% 30.0% 2007-08 $3,885,000 $4,176,400 $4,467,700 26.1% 30.0% 2008-09 $4,019,000 $4,320,400 $4,621,800 26.1% 30.0% 2009-10 $4,152,900 $4,464,400 $4,775,900 26.1% 30.0% 2010-11 $4,286,900 $4,608,400 $4,929,900 26.1% 30.0% 2011-12 $4,420,900 $4,752,400 $5,084,000 26.1% 30.0% By comparison, the 30th and last pick in the draft has a first-year salary figure of $717,800 in 2005-06 and $877,300 in 2011-12. A listing of the salary figures for all draft picks and all years can be found at the Players Association's web site: http://www.nbpa.org/cba_exhibits/exhibitB.php A team may sign a player for as little as 80% or as much as 120% of the scale salary figure. For example, the 1st year salary for the #1 overall pick drafted in 2005 can be as little as $2,893,680 or as much as $4,340,520. In most cases, the contract that is actually signed is for the maximum 120% figure. Teams are able to provide this amount using the Rookie exception, even if they are over the salary cap. Annual raises are limited to 8%, and also can't exceed 120% of the scale amount for that season. If the player is not signed by January 10th, the scale amount reduces each day for the remainder of the season. For example, if there are 170 days in the season, then the scale amount reduces by 1/170th each day starting January 10th, until the player is signed. The exact percentage increase for the third and fourth (option) years varies by the player's draft position. For the third year it is 26.1% for the first pick, scaling up (almost evenly) to 80.5% for the 30th pick. For the fourth year it's 30.0% for the first pick, scaling up to 50.0% for the 30th pick. Teams have until the October 31 preceding the player's second season to exercise their option for the player's third season. Likewise, they have until the October 31 preceding the player's third season to exercise their option for the player's fourth season (see question number 50 for more information on options). If the team invokes both options (keeping the player for all four seasons) then the player becomes a restricted free agents following his fourth season (see question number 36 for more information on restricted free agency). If the team declines either option, then the player enters free agency as an unrestricted free agent.
that's nothing. allan houston was getting paid over 20 mil per season and only played in 50 games in 03/04, 20 games in 04/05, 0 games in 05/06, and 0 games in 06/07. that's over $80 million for 70 games played. houston got paid 1.1 million per game that he actually played!
