The dollar figures in this article are pretty staggering. Interesting read from ESPN Insider. - Chris --------------------------------------------------------- KG: The NBA's first $300 Million Man? By Terry Brown Monday, July 15 Updated 2:53 PM EST It isn't Kevin Garnett's fault that your alarm clock went off this morning. Or that your kid's teeth are crooked at the same time the air conditioner broke in your apartment and the tires on the used car you bought six months ago are already bald. After all, you didn't lead your professional basketball team in scoring, rebounding, blocked shots and steals. You didn't total the second-most assists, either. And I didn't see you in a commercial for absolutely anything. So, next year, when the Minnesota Timberwolves make KG the first $300M man in sports, I don't want to hear how much a third-grade teacher makes in Mauldin, South Carolina. You heard right. Garnett made $22.4M last season, the fourth of a six-year $126M contract that revolutionized they way we count beans in the NBA. He's about to do it again. By the time KG's contract expires after the 2003-04 season, in two seasons, he'll already be making close to $30M. So we'll start from there and, believe me, Minnesota will want a contract in place long before this kid even sniffs the open market. Under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, a team can exceed the salary cap to re-sign its own player to a maximum of seven years at 12.5 percent raises each season. That's the famous Larry Bird Exception. Let's do the math together. Year One: $30M Year Two: $33.75M Year Three: $37.9M Year Four: $42.7M Year Five: $48M Year Six: $54M Year Seven: $60.8M Ladies and gentlemen, that's a grand total of $307.1M. Now, if you haven't smashed your outdated computer monitor on the sidewalk below, take a deep breath and understand that the Timberwolves cannot afford to not sign Garnett. In seven seasons, he has been named to four All-NBA teams and six All-Star teams. You do not need to use all of the fingers on one hand to count how many players are better than him on the planet. The year his current contract expires, he will be only 28 years old, or two years younger than Shaquille O'Neal is now. According to Jerry West's calculations, Garnett will still be four or five years away from his prime. And let me put this as gentle as possible. Nobody not named Szczerbiak pays top dollar at the Target Center to see Wally play. Terrell Brandon doesn't move jerseys. Joe Smith might as well be John Doe. Without Garnett, the Timberwolves as we know them are finished as a franchise. New Orleans could get crowded. Or did you forget they already almost moved there in 1994. Forget about all their attendance records. The NBA Board of Governors had to block it. KG has been there longer than the current coach. He was the current GM's first draft pick. More people cheer for the name on the back of his jersey than for the one on the front. Besides, he's a good kid, plays hard and would cut off the thumb on his shooting hand if it meant he could wrap the other nine fingers around that gold ball and sleep with it for a night. No player plays with more passion. And if you think the fans up north are getting tired of being bounced in the first round, how are they going to feel about reminiscing about George Mikan while crossing fingers for lottery balls year after year. The Timberwolves never had an All-Star nor playoff invite before they drafted this kid out of sixth period. Square one is that close. Christian Laettner, Isiah Rider, Tom Gugliotta and Stephon Marbury have all come and gone. Wally may be next. For all we know, Radoslov Nesterovic may already be gone. And who knows if the Timberwolves will ever get a first-round pick in the draft again. Yap all you want about never making it to the second round of the NBA playoffs. How do you think KG feels? They won three more games than the season before to finish with 50. Only six teams in the entire league accomplished that. The Timberwolves just happen to play in the Western Conference. They are arguably the fifth best team in the NBA. It just so happens that they are also arguably the fifth best team in the conference. Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Antonio and Dallas aren't going anywhere. But KG could. He grew up a Laker fan. Magic Johnson was his favorite player. Los Angeles will need another superstar when Shaq goes full-time Hollywood. Imagine the possibilities. Put him in the Eastern Conference and he's next year's MVP in a lopside. Or fill in your own favorite team. Create the scenario and smile. See. What did I tell you. Garnett didn't send those bill collectors to your door, but he sure can make them go away with one tomahawk dunk. At his current salary, KG makes up 41.1 percent of his team's entire payroll. No other player is higher. Not Kidd, Kobe, Chris Webber, Tracy McGrady . . . nobody. Not even Shaq, who is at 40.4 percent. Karl Malone is close at 32.2 percent. Alonzo Mourning even closer at 35.3 percent. And depending on who he's playing for this week, Juwan Howard is right there. But come brass taxes and bottom lines, supply, demand and Adam Smith, Garnett just might be underpaid. After all, you can't blame capitalism on him, either. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Geeze, i sure don't think KG is worth THAT much! I mean, he's too thin to be a dominant post player, he can't really bang too much. Signing him to anything more than he makes now will only kill that franchise.
Nobody is worth 300 million dollars. I wouldn't pay anybody other than Shaquille O'Neal the amount of money KG is making on his current contract. 126 million over 7 years will pretty much tie the hands of any franchise financially. 300 million is just insane.
Nobody can afford KG, but then again, nobody could afford Nolan Ryan back in 1980 at 1 million. So the sky's the limit. Eventually his 22.4 million a year will be considered a bargain.
First, the maximum that Minnesota CAN pay him as opposed to WILL pay him are very different things. If they Can pay up to X million more per season than another team, that doesn't mean they will. Not to say that they won't give him a premium for staying, it just won't necessarily be the maximum possible number if there are numbers in between that will satisfy both parties. Second, there probably are numbers in between. Garnett, according to most reports I've seen, is not happy with flaming out in the first round every year and is smart enough to realize that his gargantuan contract is one of the things that causes that. Will he take less than another team offers to play in Minnie? No. But will he consign himself to mediocrity to add another 3 Escalades to his fleet? Probably not, and don't think the Twolves dont recognize this either.
They don't have to pay him that much, no one else can give them that raise, so they can just pay as much or one dollar more then anyone else and it is still reasonable. DD
Huh? He's already a dominant player in stretches, and can be on both ends. Can't bang too much? He bangs night in and night out and is also long, and usually wins his battles banging down low for the boards.
Another article on KG from ESPN The Magazine. - Chris --------------------------------------------------------------------- Reinventing Kevin Garnett by Chris Palmer ESPN The Magazine http://espn.go.com/magazine/palmer_20020715.html In a single July day, The Magazine's Chris Palmer was exposed to both extremes of Kevin Garnett. The T-Wolves' happy-go-lucky kid is contrasted by a fierce, dangerously passionate competitor with a sharp tongue -- someone who might scare you silly if he didn't come pre-wrapped in cuddly YMCA-kid-next-door package. This is the Garnett you don't know about. Yet. The day starts out with Kevin the Fierce. Well, sort of. I arrive at Hutton Gym on the campus of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., where KG is shooting his new And 1 spot. The commercial, which begins airing Monday night, is loosely based on the interrogation scene in Scarface, his favorite movie. The theme: KG calls into question his doubts and weaknesses by grilling himself mercilessly. But KG is nowhere to be found. It's 10:30 and already 95 degrees. The production crew has crudely taped up a wall of plastic which forms a makeshift hallway at one end of the gym. Outside, a huge generator is pumping in some seriously frigid air. Not that it's working. The plastic tunnel leads to a small stuffy room that will serve as the set's primary location: the interrogation room. By noon it's an inferno. Garnett shows up at 12:30. He grabs a little something from the food-service table, then heads to wardrobe to pick something from his line. Director Chris Robinson holds what seems to be an endless stream of production meetings. Robinson has a list of about 100 scripted questions aimed at pushing Garnett's buttons. Production assistants scurry about, routing cable, shouting in walkie-talkies and banging the sides of monitors that don't act right. At 2:45 it is announced that cameras will roll in 20 minutes. An hour later KG enters the interrogation room. He sits in an unforgiving steel chair at a table in the middle of the room. Robinson gives Kevin a few last minute instructions before the cameras roll. "Relax, be yourself, be real," says Robinson. "No doubt. Let's do the damn thing," KG replies. After Garnett gets settled, Robinson reads his prepared questions off camera. Garnett's answers are unscripted, shocking, refreshing and serious. What follows is part of the interrogation. Q: Are you overpaid? KG: Hell no. If anything I'm underpaid, with everything I do. That's a ridiculous question. I have to do everything for this team. Q: Are you tough enough to play in the Western Conference? Maybe Minnesota should move to the East. KG: Man, I've been in the Western Conference for seven years. Holdin' it down. Nobody there scares me. Look at my numbers. You know my rap sheet. Q: What are your numbers? KG: Twenty, ten and five. Twenty, ten and five. Three years in a row. And I'm rounding down. Who else has done that? Q: What does that get you? KG: It gets you what it gets you. Q: Does it get you out of the first round? KG: We'll get out of the first round when everybody does their part. Players, coaches, management, everybody. I can't do everything by myself. It'll get us past the first round if m-----------s do their part. Q: Word on the street is that you're soft in the fourth quarter. KG: F--- you talkin' about? That's not what I hear. Q: What do you hear? KG: That KG is the m---------ing s---. *****s know. My peers in the league know what I'm about. Q: What have you learned about the fourth quarter? KG: To not pass the ball if we're losing. Q: Did it hurt you when your idols criticized you? [During the playoffs, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley were highly critical of Garnett for not "stepping up" in the fourth quarter.] KG: That was just them being d---s. They were just looking for a camera. Besides, they're not my idols anyway. Q: Has Kobe ever dunked on you? KG: That's a stupid question. No. Kobe has never dunked on me in his life. Q: Are you and Wally better than Kobe and Shaq? KG: [Long pause] No … it hurts me to say it but we're not. I just … [sigh] ... we just aren't. Q: Why did you skip college? KG: At the time I felt like going pro was the only way I was going to make something of my life. Besides college ain't s---. It's like slavery, they're trying to f--- the kids. You gotta get your education but I made a decision for me. This past season KG made the All-Interview first team. This might just put him in the Hall of Fame. After taking the questions, Garnett was filmed pacing around the table, asking the questions, to complete the "KG grills KG" aspect of the commercial. By 6 o'clock, he was exhausted. "What you just saw was all me," he said. "That's just how I'm feeling right now. Now is the time. This is me, what you see. I feel like it's time for all the bull---- to stop. I'm ready to do my part." Moments later, KG was in his Ferrari Spyder heading home to shower and change. Robinson, the director, emerged from the set with a look of disbelief. "Man, that's a serious cat," he says. "That was pure KG. You just saw his real passion." (That passion is a bit muted in the finished commercial, which I previewed Monday afternoon, but you'll still get the point.) Nine hours after I arrived at the gym, I was out of there. After a quick pit stop at the hotel I'm scooped up by Michael Moore, KG's pal and business manager of his Official Block Family clothing line. Destination: Ruth's Chris Steak House. They close at 10, and it's already 10:15. When KG's in the house, they close when KG leaves. He's on a first-name basis with all the waitresses and the chefs keep the kitchen open until our posse of 10 is way past stuffed. A few years ago the T-Wolves used to eat here as a team 35 nights out of the season. Last season they ate here once. "It ain't like it used to be," says KG. Anyway, the staff is glad to see him again. KG takes a seat at the head of the table. He's sporting a brand new Sixers Moses Malone jersey from the '82-'83 season. His mood banged a U-turn since the shoot. Gone is the junk-spewing interrogation suspect. KG and his boys are on total joke time. The conversation is boisterous and there's a comeback for every cutdown. Topics shift from the greatest rapper of all time to Iverson's infamous crossover on Jordan when Bubba Chuck was a rookie. The table declares Tupac the best deceased rapper and Jay-Z the king of the living. "They could be on this topic for hours," says Moore. But when someone says Tupac could have run for president in his heyday everyone decides it's best to change the subject. How about boxing? "Mike Tyson invented the 30-second knockout," declares KG's boy, DJ Set Free. "Yeah, but he also invented the get-your-ass-pummeled-by-Lennox-Lewis-and-get-knocked-the-hell-out-in-the-8th-round," KG quips. He slaps shut his menu and orders the New York strip, lobster, a Caesar salad and a Coke. He's 7'1", and still growing. But his eyes are bigger than his stomach and he takes his leftovers home in a doggie bag. After dinner KG pulls aside one of his crew who has been especially quiet tonight. The kid looks way too young to hang with this crowd, but Garnett tries to make him feel accepted. His name is Michael Mason and he's 17. He's also KG's adopted son. KG is feeling good and proceeds to rag one of the homeys for his recent lack of skill in the batting cage. He imitates all three strikes, nearly twisting himself into the ground in the middle of the restaurant. Next he's in somebody else's face about something, sticking his tongue out and doing some dance that's a cross between the funky chicken and a deranged bobblehead. But no one seems to notice. "We're used to it," says Free. "That's just him." His friends will tell you this is when he's at his best. When he can be plain old Kevin. Not the Franchise. Not the Big Ticket. Not Da Kid or The Man. Just Kevin. The guy who thinks he's still on the asphalt playgrounds of Mauldin, S.C. Our crew heads for the door 2 1/2 hours after closing. Walking out in single file, Kevin is about mid-pack when his eyes get big. He spots the candy dish at the front counter. "Mints!" he exclaims. He reaches one of his Spalding-palming hands in the bowl and scoops out a massive helping and stuffs them deep in his pocket. Enough to last a month. I go to grab a few when his five-finger crane scoops again. And again. He presses his jeans against his leg, revealing a bulge of mints in his pocket the size of a football. "Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about," he says, as he bobs out the door to the Ferrari waiting by the curb. I had no idea I could fit in a Ferrari. But here I am in the passenger seat with room to spare. KG zips his hat backwards and comfortably dips into the driver's seat. "Here, hold this," he says as he tosses the doggie bag in my lap. He fires up the beast and the stereo nearly blasts my face off. KG lets out a satisfied chuckle. I meant to do that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
I was about to post that article. After reading that, I have lost alot of respect for him. I see him as one arrogant, hard headed b*stard now. Yes, I admit, I talk like that but to actually conduct that interview and gave permission to let ESPN publish it, I would have handled the interview with more maturity. He justed show the world that he SHOULD have went to college.
Dave, i'm with you when i first read that article i thought it was a joke, but actually went to the link and saw that it was real i couldn't believe it.
This is ridiculous. If anyone pays him this much they're beyond stupid. Yeah, he whines about not making it past the first round but he NEVER will now...
Way to make me look stupid Kevin. I take back what I said. I guess he will make 300 mil which probably is the going rate for the "muthf-ng sh-t"!
Even under the old cba rules, no one in the nba can or will make that much. They have limitations on everything. Per season, Shaq is the highest paid player in sports at 30+mill, Garnett when his contract is up, the T-Woolves would probably let it go out and resign him at a reduced rate of 12-14 mill per yr. Seeing that no one can offer more than that per seaon, wouldn't that be wiser than giving him an extension like that and handicapping the entire team?
It would be wise to not sign him for that much, but thats not going to happen. He will sign a 300 million dollar contract because some owner out there will give him the MAX.
Not according to this article from ESPN Magazine... The director says that is KG straight from the heart. Interesting that we see his true persona, rather than the prepackaged, public representation of KG by his PR guys and agent... June 20, 2002 Rap session by Chris Palmer ESPN The Magazine Where have you heard the name Chris Robinson? Well, if you've been paying attention, you've at least seen it on the bottom left corner of your screen when you're tuned to MTV. Robinson is hip-hop's premier music video director and has shot videos for such acts as Faith Evans, Method Man, DMX and Snoop Dogg. And no doubt you saw Puffy's Bad Boy for Life (Ben Stiller was a trip, right?). Robinson is also a lifelong hoops fan. So no surprise when Kevin Garnett called him to direct his latest And 1 shoe commercial. I chatted up the big fella on set in Minneapolis about KG's mind, heart and favorite movie. CPalm: How much of KG's attitude in this commercial is him and how much is he playing a character? CRob: This is all him. All him. The subject matter of this commercial is KG answering his critics. From working with KG in the past I know how passionate he is and how emotional he is about winning, working hard and trying to be the best. These are things that he cares deeply about. When I talk to him on the phone he's passionate like that. At our first production meeting at his house he got up in the middle of the room and just went crazy. He let out how he felt about wanting to get better, taking his team deeper in the playoffs and just how desperately he wants to win. Chris Robinson has the task of harnessing the energy that is KG. CPalm: Who comes up with the ideas for his commercials? CRob: All the ideas for his commercials are based on reality. It's all based on his thoughts and the way he thinks. It's all real. The first commercial (Feb. '02) was about his life in South Carolina and him dreaming about making it one day. CPalm: So this commercial is about KG at the crossroads? CRob: This spot is about what he's going to do. If you remember, people criticized him at the end of the season and he was concerned with that. His thing is he wants to show and prove. He wants to let everybody know who the real KG is. That's why we got such a passionate response out of him. CPalm: You can see all the frustration from getting bounced out of the first round five years in a row. CRob: Yeah. We prepped him and let him know that this wasn't going to be your average nice little shoot. We put him in a hot box, we let him be irritated, we let him get pissed off and everything really came out. CPalm: How did the Scarface influence work into the commercial's concept? CRob: KG and I are both products of the hip-hop nation and Scarface is hip-hop's all-time classic film. We're always calling each other up and quoting Scarface. We thought about doing an interview-style commercial or maybe a press conference set-up like Iverson did a couple of months ago. We thought it worked best in that Menace II Society interrogation-Scarface kind of vibe. CPalm: Why is Scarface so popular with hip-hoppers? CRob: Because we understand Tony Montana (Al Pacino's character). He came from nothing and he attained the world. A lot of ballplayers and rappers can identify with that, going from nothing to something. That's what drives you to be the best. That's what keeps you out on the court when everybody else is partying and chillin'. CPalm: What is the public going to think about KG after these commercials? CRob: They'll see that Kevin realizes this is a serious situation. When he first came into the league he was just happy to be here. Now he knows there is more to it than just that. If you remember his early commercials (Nike's Fun Police spots), they reflected his mood at the time. This commercial does too, but his mood is very different now. He's a more serious cat now and he wants that reflected in everything he does.
Yes he gets a lot of boards, but i was referring more to his post up game. During the playoffs last year he hardly even tried to post up. He seemed to be content with taking jump shots and passing off to teammates. I acknowledge that he's a great player, but I feel he doesnt deserve so much money if he's not a post player.
KG will get a PAY CUT when his current contract expires. The MAX from every other team will be less then the money that Minnesota can pay him. They will pay him MAX money, but that is FAR from the 300 million that they COULD pay him, but won't, and guess what, he will not have a choice. DaDakota PS. KG is softer then a babies ASS in the 4th quarter.
