As ludicrous as 3 year 90 million sounds, Kobe Bryant may be underpaid.
Agreed. The top stars in the league are underpaid. LeBron, Howard, Kobe definitely are from a business standpoint. NBA is a star-driven league and these are the guys who drive ratings, spin the turnstiles, and move merchandise. All teams get to enjoy the benefits of that since those revenues are (mostly) shared.
We can argue all day long about how, on a production basis, Kobe will be overpaid, but the way the CBA is set up veterans will almost always look bad by that metric. Some of the most productive players in the league are still on their rookie-scale contracts and are artificially underpaid. The PA wanted it that way, where vets "got theirs" while the young'uns all had to pay their dues.
And if in 2012 the world ends it's all a moot point.
Somehow, I think the Lakers will be fine.
Wait, so Kobe's supposed to take a paycut just in case the new CBA has a hard cap?
This is a legitimate dilemma in your world?
Players with the value of Shaq hit the market all the time, but they don't switch teams like they used to, courtesy of the CBA hammered out more than a decade ago. Have you somehow missed this? Quick, name the last superstar to change teams via free agency and in his prime.
Lakers are already in "cap " - so freaking what? They have 2 of the top 15 most valuable players in the NBA locked up long term, not to mention 4 of the top 30 or so. They pretty much have the core that won the last le under contract for close to their prime years. The bench is weak but no team is perfect and I expect they'll continue to address that each year with the draft, MLE, LLE, etc.Thinking about it now, the Lakers have committed a lot of money for an aging core. Artest has what 4 yrs? Odom 3 yrs? Luke Walton still has a few more seasons with his MLE and now Kobe with $90 mil which pretty much will put them in cap in a couple of seasons. They better hope they win this year, if not at least next year to at least get their money's worth.
I love all the false concern over how this somehow puts the Lakers in a difficult position. Yes, all the hand-wringing on behalf of the poor Laker franchise from Heat, Spur, and Rocket fans is genuinely touching.
I don't think he owes it to anyone to take a paycut, but the realities are that the Lakers will have to be broken up if there's a hard cap and the players association hasn't shown any ap ude to stop the owners from getting what they want in the negotiations of the last two collective bargaining agreements. The owners wanted max salaries with caps on the years in 1999, and got them. They wanted caps on the yearly raises and got them in 99 and got them reduced even further in 05. They got the players to contribute to an escrow fund. They cut a further year off player contracts in 05. They eliminated players coming straight out of high school. Instead of having 1st round picks locked in to a fixed salary for 3 years with a team option on the 3rd, like the 99 CBA guaranteed, they now have them locked in for 4 years, with years 3 and 4 team options. Going on past history, what Stern wants, Stern gets from the NBAPA, and Stern wants a hard cap badly.
WojYahooNBA
Per internal league memo, here are terms on Kobe Bryant's extension: '11-12: $25.24 million; '12-'13: $27.84 million; '13-14: $30.45 mill.
The 3-year extension for Kobe Bryant reaches approximately $83.5 million, and includes a no trade clause, league memo says.
Jordan never posed like that.
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