NBA Salaries vs. The Concept of Winning
The free agent signings of Jason Kidd, Hedo Turkoglu, and Trevor Ariza beg the question: What’s up with NBA players turning their back on winning for money? Especially guys that have already had monster contracts. We’ll give Ariza a bit of a break because he won a ring with the Lakers last month and had yet to score the monster payday, but Kidd and Turkoglu are different stories, especially Kidd.
Kidd has earned $158 million in salary alone over the course of his career. $158 million. How much more freakin’ cash does he need? Does he live that “high on the hog” he’d go for the scratch instead of a real chance at winning? Does he drive a fur-lined Countach? Seems like a future Hall of Famer would like to close out his career with some hardware. Is this guy feeding all of his hometown of Oakland? And Latrell Sprewell’s family? Could be the alimony payments to Joumana.
Turkoglu has earned $35 million over the course of his career. The difference between the Blazers offer ($50 million) versus the Raptors offer ($53 million) is more than most of us will ever make, but he traded a great opportunity for team success in Portland for keeping his wife happy in Toronto.
If you analyze any other career in the world you will notice that compensation is performance based. If you fail to perform you inevitably fail to retain your position. It is a sad state of affairs within the NBA when players can go to a team with no chance of winning simply to make more money. It should go against the ideology of being a professional athlete.
Magic and Bird are true professionals by definition. (Credit: vurbmoto.com)
Have they any pride? Isn’t a professional athlete’s job supposed to be winning? Seems like it’s become more about the groupies and hangin’ in the champagne room of whatever strip club in whatever city they happen to be in that night. And why are guys on opposing teams so buddy-buddy with each other? That’s truly nauseating. Watching dudes hug and giggle with one another in the midst of a game isn’t supposed to happen. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had tremendous respect for one another, but were the fiercest of enemies on the court. This is not a bromance after all. It is basketball.
The game has devolved into what is often simply entertainment instead of fierce competition. It’s just not about winning for the vast majority of players in this league which has to make you wonder why fans allow this. Are they too hypnotized by $10 beers, the beats blaring from stadium loudspeakers, and fat guy dance troupes?
By today's standards, Bird and Magic would make less then the mid-level exception. (Credit: usinflationcalculator.com)
And since we referenced Magic and Bird, Protect the Paint decided to research how much money Magic and Bird made during their careers. Yes, it was a much different time, but the money these guys made didn’t render the concept of winning and losing obsolete like it so often does today.
Magic earned around $46 Million, with $15 million of that in his final two seasons. Deduct the $15 million from the $46 million and you have $31 Million over the first 15 years of his career.
Magic got his payday as a reward for winning NBA titles. (Credit: basketball-reference.com)
That averages out to roughly $2 million per season. Kidd will average $8.3 million for 3 years, and has but a minuscule chance at winning a championship. Obviously one could argue about inflation, and how their salaries would inflate to something near that, but it is hard to imagine either Magic or Bird leaving for the money when they were in a situation to win it all.
Even adjusting for inflation, these guys didn’t come close to making what dudes make today.
Larry Legend made an approximate total of $26.5 million during his ENTIRE career. That is $1.5 million more than Jason Kidd will make over the next three years.
Bird knew winning required making less money. (Credit: basketball-reference.com)
Larry Bird made $1.5 million in 1990-91 (a million less than Robert Parish), and didn’t care that he wasn’t the highest paid guy on the squad.
Star Players shared what little wealth they had in order to win. (Credit: Basketball-reference.com)
In the same 1990-91 season, Magic earned $2.4 million which was the most on the team, but he wasn’t obsessed with who made what.
Bird and Magic were true professionals from a bygone era. No one today compares. Not the Michael Jackson-mourning Kobe, not LeBron (especially after what happened when King James got dunked on in a pick-up game), not anyone.
They wanted to be on the best team, and be the best player on that team. They wanted to play against the best team, and beat them, no matter what the cost. If they were to make less money, that was okay. It wasn’t the point. They were already making over a million bucks for a game they would most likely have played for nothing.
They won. They did not allow their salary to interfere with the number one goal of their sport which was bringing home the title. The only greed in these guys had was the greed of winning more and more. Not money.
Realistically, how much money does someone deserve for playing the game basketball? Yes, we get the concept of supply and demand, but too many guys today play for the wrong reasons.
It’s sad when ridiculous salaries blur the concept of competition.
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Thu, Jul 9, 2009 by Adam Sedie
Free Agents, Opinions