I remember it was around the '96 offseason that marquee player salaries got into the $10-15 million range; Magic Johnson was trying to re-negotiate to that level and I believe that's what ultimately killed his second comeback. I thought the biggest contract before that was Larry Johnson's $7-8 mm/year with the Knicks, and before then I remember Shaq's rookie contract at around $6 mm per made him the highest paid player in the league, so they eventually stuck in he rookie cap.
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fplayers%2Fm%2Fmcgratr01.html&div=div_totals"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fplayers%2Fm%2Fmcgratr01.html&div=div_salaries"></script> 297 regular season games + 20 playoff gamse = 317 total games that's $272,767.74 a game for the Rockets!
I think a better question would be how much they would lose if they didn't spend that much. Late season games for a small market team out of the playoff run in a mid or smaller sized city could practically be tax write-offs.
Is the Blake Griffin number also a typo? He's only 1 mil away from D12 yet he's only been in the league for 2 years (plus that 1 year he was injured) lol
Nope, it's for how much players are signed for. Griffin's contract goes on for a few years after this one.
Duncan missed out on a lot of money by staying in college all 4 years. He's not complaining though. Did MJ really get paid that low until he made 30M per? There are so many over-paid players on that list.
They can thank Jordan certainly for the massive shoe deals they have. Shaq was one of the first to get a truly massive contract (7 years $121M).
