King James can afford new castle
LEBRON James – after agreeing to a three-year, US$100 million (NZ$139 million) contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers – will finally be the highest paid player in the NBA.
He will make slightly more than US$30.9m in the first year, and his salary for the 2017-18 season exceeds US$33.2m.
He passes Michael Jordan for the highest salary in NBA history – US$33.1m with the Chicago Bulls in the 1997-98 season. James is worth every penny. He averaged 25.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game during the regular season and was instrumental in Cleveland winning their first major pro championship in 50 years, culminating in his third NBA finals MVP award in five years.
He led the league in ESPN’s real plus-minus metric (plus-9.8), which estimates a player’s on-court impact, measured in net point differential per 100 offensive and defensive possessions, after accounting for team-mates and opponents. The reigning MVP, Stephen Curry, ranked fourth (plus-8.5 RPM), and the league’s other best player, Kevin Durant, ranked eighth (plus-6.5).
But it’s also possible James is undervalued, even with his recordsetting compensation.
James was worth 20.5 wins above a replacement player for his regular season performance, the third most after Curry (26.5) and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook (22.4).
Based on what teams must pay replacement-level players ( about US$1.3m per player), the amount a team spends above and beyond those minimum contracts for a 12-man roster (US$78.4m), and the number GETTY IMAGES of wins it takes to go from replacement-level to league average (25), each win above replacement a player can contribute to a team is worth about US$3.1m.
That would value James’s performance at US$63.6m for the 2015-16 season.
And that doesn’t include any of his post-season performance, which was worth an additional 8.4 wins above replacement – not to mention those shiny new rings.
And once the championship run was over, James passed Jordan as most valuable player in NBA history.
But that just covers James’s oncourt value.
Off the court, Forbes estimates his brand to be worth US$48m, not including the merchandise he sells for the NBA, where his jersey routinely ranks in the top five for the league.