With Team USA struggling to perform properly in an international tournament that doesn’t completely revolve around money, it’s a good time to look at what really shapes NBA competition; Pay day.The 2010/11 season includes some bizarre and lucrative remuneration. No surprise, Kobe cleans up and will rake the most coin next year with his $24,806,250 salary The second highest paid player in the NBA next year will be, shockingly, Rashard Lewis. He'll make an obscene $19,573,711 as a result of a long and asinine contract he signed in 2007 Though a decent player, he only averaged 14.1 ppg and 4.4 rpg last year yet he’s making almost as much as Steve Nash ($10,310,938) and Caron Butler ($10,500,000) combined.
Other crap players making huge sums of money off contracts they signed years ago before they fell off include Michael Redd at $18,300,000, Vince Carter at $17,522,375 and Andrei Kirilenko at $17,823,000. Despite fading in to obscurity and irreverence, Elton Brand will make $15,959,099 next year. Ever more mind boggling is that despite being 36 years old, Marcus Camby will still make $11,749,832 off the Portland Trailblazers.
The highest paid point guards are Chris Paul and Deron Williams who each make $14,940,153 a piece. They deserve every penny of it and will make a hell of a lot more as they evolve into this generations greatest point guard. They should be in Turkey right now.
Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, who all agreed to take pay cuts in order to form Florida's Axis of Evil, will get paid $14,500,000, $14,200,000 and $14,500,000 a piece. There’s no state income tax in Florida, so the hit they took on their paychecks to play in Miami is a bit less then it would be in a state like California where the income tax rate is 10.3%. It’s worth noting that Mr. Bryant will make almost $10 million more than Mr. James this year. If LA manages to beat Miami in the 2011 finals, that number’s going to sting even more.
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