Form a more-perfect union
Players’ associations can learn from NBA
Your parents were right when they told you it pays to be a good sport. Just ask Mike Conley.
Mike Conley hasn’t won much during his nine-year NBA career, although he was twice named winner of the league’s sportsmanship award. He was rewarded for his fealty to both the letter and the spirit of the law last week with a fiveyear contract for $153 million from the Memphis Grizzlies. To put that into perspective consider this: It’s the richest contract in NBA history.
Sportsmanship pays, but who knew how much?
Money was falling off the back of trucks when NBA free agency opened and has showed little sign of abating even though not a one of these guys is worth the money, including the Celtics’ signee, Al Horford. Add Kevin Durant and we’ll sing another tune but one doubts there will be a need to warble today.
This is in part a result of a salary cap that skyrocketed by $24 million (from $70 million to $94 million) and in part a result of mass stupidity, which is why owners want hard caps. Anything less and they lose their minds.
One understands the NBA cap has a floor and so money must be wasted but shouldn’t you have to be a player you want to put on the floor to get paid? Apparently not.
Timofey Mozgov, the 7-foot-1 center of the Cleveland Cavaliers agreed to a four-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers worth $64 million. That’s an average of $16 million a season for a guy who played 25 minutes for the Cavs during the NBA Finals against the Warriors. That’s not 25 minutes a game. That’s 25 minutes. Total.
If a guy you don’t want to put on the floor and who averaged 1.2 points and 5.8 minutes per game in this year’s playoffs is worth $16 million we should all pray our sons are blessed with overactive pituitary glands.
Not only do you not have to play to get paid by the NBA, you don’t even have to be in one piece. Chandler Parsons is a 27-year-old hoopster with a lot of tread wear. He’s had two knee surgeries and is a 0-time All-Star. He’s also now the owner of a four-year, $94.8 million max contract. Certainly he’s a legit NBA player on the nights his knees work, but Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wanted no part of that deal and he’s on “Shark Tank” every week.
That Cuban is willing to take financial risks is obvious yet he couldn’t stomach the risk involved in retaining someone more familiar with the medical staff in Dallas than the coaching staff.
And then there was a familiar face to Celtics fans at the bank teller’s window. Evan Turner was a ready reserve in Boston this season, averaging 10.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 27.8 minutes a game. Solid pro. Helpful guy. Hale fellow. But should he earn more in one season than Larry Bird and Magic Johnson combined after agreeing to a four-year contract for $70 million?
What went on in the first night of NBA free agency set its NFL counterparts off and made obvious why NFL owners cling so fiercely to their form of the cap, which fits tighter than a latex glove. Running back DeAngelo Williams tweeted it best when he wrote: “Call me a hater but these NBA deals are insane. I have to Google the players getting paid.”
In other words, he had no clue who guys getting paid as if they were the reincarnation of Dr. J when they were in fact a reincarnation of Dr. Who even were. That’s not the players’ fault, by the way. Good for them for cashing in on a system that hinted that straight-jackets needed to be ordered for NBA general managers and team owners.
What was most remarkable was that nearly every NBA expert/insider conceded none of them were worth the money. Heck, Jeff Green, who plays up to his physical abilities about once a week, was given a one-year, $15 million deal to underachieve next season in Orlando, and Magic management was praised because it chose to only waste money on him for one year.
Frankly, unless Horford’s arrival comes with Durant attached today, is he worth $113 million over the next four years? No. Does he make the Celtics better? Yes, but not good enough to challenge the Cavaliers and one should not forget the Hawks, who killed the Celtics in the playoffs just two months ago, chose to offer Dwight Howard $70 million rather than offer Horford a max deal. What do they know that Danny Ainge doesn’t?
Ainge will tell you nothing but he’d say the same thing if you asked what does Einstein know that Danny Ainge doesn’t so one can discount that just a tad.
Will there be fallout from all this? Certainly not in the NBA, where the cap is expected to climb again next season to an estimated $107 million as they continue a process known as “cap smoothing.” Who knows what the hell “cap smoothing” means, but one should hope it comes to an employer near you soon.
But NFL players are not looking fondly at the moment at their union, which continues to settle for a free agency system in which they are neither free nor paid commensurate to the risk they take or with what teams are raking in. If you question this, consider Colts quarterback Andrew Luck. He just became the highestpaid player in NFL history with a six-year, $140 million contract. That’s slightly over $23.3 million a season with $47 million guaranteed.
It’s a good payday until you realize the NBA’s two-time sportsmanship award winner has to play a year less to earn $13 million more and is guaranteed $106 million more to play a game far less dangerous than Luck’s, as Luck found out when he missed more than half the season last year with a shoulder injury and lacerated kidney.
The only way an NBA player is in danger of lacerating a kidney is trying to pick up his money clip.