Here's the story from ESPN. It's not like we get a competitive advantage, but it makes me feel a little better that we have more money to spend. NEW YORK -- The NBA salary cap for the 2003-04 season will be almost $44 million, a jump of about 9 percent from last season. The league and the players' union released the new figure Tuesday night on the eve of the expiration of a moratorium on free agent signings. Their financial calculations showed the average salary to be $4.917 million, which will become the starting salary for any free agent signed to the full mid-level exception. The new salary cap figure of $43.84 million is the highest in NBA history. A year ago, the figure dropped from $42.5 million to $40.27 million _ the first drop since the salary cap system was adopted for the 1984-85 season. The salary cap represents the maximum amount of payroll a team can spend on player salaries. It is known as a ``soft'' cap, however, as teams are allowed to use several exceptions to exceed that figure. Teams whose payrolls exceeded $52.9 million last season will have to pay a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax on the overage. All luxury tax money will be pooled and redistributed to teams below the threshold under a formula to be determined by the league's Board of Governors. The players' union said it expected next season's tax threshold to be $57 million. The cap of $43.84 million will raise the value of maximum salary contracts agreed to between Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets, and Jermaine O'Neal and the Indiana Pacers. Kidd is eligible to earn a starting salary equal to 30 percent of the cap, or $13.152 million. With annual increases of 12.5 percent, his deal will be worth a total of $103.67 million -- an increase of more than $5 million from previously reported figures. The cap has increased by an average of 8.5 percent during the current collective bargaining agreement, rising from $26.9 million in 1997-98 to the current level. The 2003-04 minimum team salary, set at 75 percent of the salary cap, will be $32,880,000.
Can someone with ACTUAL knowledge of all salary commitments for the Rockets for the 2003-04 (including Maloney's deal, etc., if we still owe any money on such deals), along with the total in comparison to both the new salary cap and luxury tax treshhold? Achebe??? Thanks!
This is really getting out of hand... we have basketball players making millions on just playing basketball.. what good do they really do that other people such as doctors, officers, nurses.. etc... o wells. just had to vent here
We're the ones that make it worthwhile for them to get paid millions. If the fans decided they no longer wanted to watch nba basketball and buy nba merchandise, the entire nba business would drop in price.
We are WELL over the cap. Our number last year was just over $50 million. We'll be close to the luxury tax threshold.
You don't know how this is important to the Rockets. If it isn't for a salary cap (thus the luxury tax thershold too) rise, Posey will most likely not be a Rocket.
