Wednesday, April 04, 2007 Sayson: NBA money By Homer Sayson Second Overtime
CHICAGO - Under the league's new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), each NBA team is allowed to sign 15 players in their roster, up from 12 from years past.
Currently, there are 30 NBA teams scattered throughout six divisions in two conferences, the East and the West. Which means there are 450 contracted NBA players this season. 450 of the luckiest people in the world.
Kevin Garnett, the 7-foot, do-it-all Minnesota Timberwolf, is the highest paid cog at $21 million. Tarence Kinsey, an undrafted rookie, is among the lowest paid.The 6-foot-6, 189-pound Memphis Grizzlies guard is raking in a mere $412, 718.
The average NBA salary this season is $5.2 million, reports USA Today. This figure changes annually because players' salaries, especially those of the superstars, get an automatic raise of at least 10 percent a year.
The New York Knicks payroll is the league's fattest. It isn't greater than the GNP of Panama, but at $117 million and change, it's darn close.
Charlotte's $41.8 million payroll is the slimmest in the NBA. But it isn't that the Bobcats are cheap or unwillingly to spend the big bucks, they just can't spend so much money yet because of their status as an expansion team.
Leading MVP candidate Dirk Nowitki bites $15 million out of Dallas' $88.5 million payroll pie. In Phoenix, Shawn Marion also collects $15 million, but strangely, the highest-paid Sun is Jalen Rose, who is barely playing and earning a cool $18.4 million this year, part of an expiring deal he inked with the free-spending Knicks.
Steve Nash, the Suns' floor leader extraordinaire, takes home a cool $10.5 million or $14,228 per assist. Nash the defending back-to-back MVP leads the league in assists with 11.5 a game.
With his team struggling at 39-34, Kobe Bryant isn't having as much fun as the 61-12 Mavs and the 55-18 Suns. But Kobe's accountants are grinning from ear-to-ear. The alpha Laker has a $17.7 million paycheck, which means he pockets $8,703 for every point he scores.
The mercurial Ron Artest, 27, is up to his neck in troubles. He is charged with domestic violence for allegedly hitting his girlfriend and he is being investigated for animal cruelty after allegedly starving one of his dogs.
But Ron-Ron still has a reason to smile. All he has to do is look at his paycheck, a stout $7.5 million. The 6-foot-7, 260-pound small forward leads the NBA in steals with 2.2 a game, which means he gets $58,341 per steal.
Lightning quick and 6-foot-11 inches long, Marcus Camby is the NBA's leading shotblocker with 3.0 a contest. With his $8.8 million salary, Camby gets $47,826 a block. Garnett, meanwhile, the leading rebounder with 12.9 a game, gets $23,756 per rebound.
If players were paid according to free throws made, Shaquille O'Neal and Ben Wallace wouldn't be so filthy rich. Shaq, the Heat's 7-foot-1 behemoth, makes just 52.6 percent of his freebies, but thanks to his might under the boards, he gets $20 million.
Wallace is the highest paid Bull at $16 million a year. And that's no bull. Although the 6-foot-9 tower of power connects just 41.1 percent from the stripe, his other stats nasty good -- 10.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks to go along with 6.4 points a game.
Although I mingle a lot with these NBA players, talking with them inside locker rooms and watching games at the press box, our salaries are continents apart. But I have no reason to complain. I'm neither tall nor fast. I can't shoot or dribble or drive. In other words, I'm not sexy, NBA material.
The only assist I know is passing the plates at the eat-all-you-can buffet table. I can't block a shot, either, but I often have writer's block. Yes, I did rebound. From a bad first marriage. And gosh, I can't steal basketballs, but four times a week here in these pages, I can steal your attention.
I'M NOT LEAVING. My column last Monday, "Thanks for having me but I'm leaving Sun.Star," was meant to be an April Fools' joke. But a lot of my readers thought it was for real.
Let me set the record straight. It was a joke. I'm not leaving Sun.Star Cebu. How can I ever abandon you, people?
Anyway, my Inbox is bursting with e-mails from loyal readers who wished me well with glowing tributes and tearful goodbyes. Thanks for your kind words.
See you again here, Friday. Not in a national newspaper, which could still happen (once a week only), without me leaving Sun.Star Cebu.
P.S. Greetings to Ms. Emelyn Li of 94.7 FM in Cebu. She confesses to be a fan of Second Overtime. How sweet. Thanks also to Edward Labora, Rey John Tantay and Joseph Rendon of UCPB-Jones. They, too, are Sun.Star Cebu loyalists.
