Tim Duncan takes a pay cut because it will help the Spurs

wow for those of you who are bashing this guy for taking a pay cut, a 11-12 million pay cut is alot to sacrifice. even if he were to make 20 million a year after that cut he took that cut knowing that he could have made more but instead took less money than he could have accepted in order to potentially make his team better. i think KG did that a few years back and look where it got him. i wish there were more players like this, like tim duncan. and for the record i agree with the other posters when they say that TD will probably still be putting up some pretty good numbers because his game doesn't really revolve around athleticism much at all. granted he's not as flashy but he gets the job done.

 

Let's look at it this way:

Five years from now, when Duncan is 36, do you think that he can get a contract that's worth 20 million dollars a year on the open market? Hell No!

In fact, Shaq was traded because he wanted a five-year extension averaging 20 mil a year at the age 32.

 

At the end of THIS season (in Summer of '08), Tim Duncan could have opted to be an UNRESTRICTED free agent!

At which time, there are teams who would offer him a MAX deal with MAX years, guaranteed That is, 7 years, beginning at 22 Mil, and INCREASING from there. Look at what Kidd got when he was over 30...the absolute MAX. I mane, LA didn't extend Shaq, but Miami did, didn't they?

 

Might be wrong about the 22 Mil, I didn't stop to look it up; probably start @ 18 - 19, and go up from there.