Media shouldn't be involved in super-max eligibility
Some NBA superstars don't like the media. Perhaps you've heard. Sometimes it's the media in general. Sometimes it's an individual writer. Sometimes the superstars have a legit reason for their dislike. Sometimes not.
But Thursday brought absolute ammunition for superstar hostility against the NBA's most prominent media.
Beat writers and national writers and national television personalities collectively cost Karl-Anthony Towns, Klay Thompson and Bradley Beal more than $30 million each.
You read that right: more than 30 million dollars.
Simply with their votes for the All-NBA teams this year, 100 media kept Towns and Thompson from eligibility for the super-max contracts allowed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
At the same time, Kemba Walker and Damian Lillard were coronated as supermax worthy.
All because of the collective opinion of those media. And that's absurd.
No offense, but Mike Breen and Marv Albert, Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe, our own Erik Horne and Royce Young, have no business determining how much money NBA scrubs or superstars make.
The super-max was instituted as a way for franchises to offer veteran superstars more money than they could make elsewhere and thus entice them to stay with their original team. Might as well call it the Kevin Durant Rule.
The super-max clause allows veterans at a certain stage of their careers to be offered 35 percent of the payroll cap instead of 30 percent, which on a five-year contract is the difference between $221 million and $190 for million over five years, or $190 million over five years instead of $158 million over five years, for younger players.
So far, four stars have signed super-max deals: Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Steph Curry and John Wall.
There are several ways to achieve super-max eligibility, but the most common is to be voted All-NBA, either first-, second- or third-team. Which means press row is determining how much some NBA players can be paid. And this year, neither Beal, Towns nor Thompson made the AllNBA team. So they're not eligible for the bonus contract.
Hey. That's not our decision to make.
We should report on what NBA teams spend and why they spend it and who they spend it on. But having an official role in what an NBA team can offer a player? That is not our place. That's a role from which we should flee.
The NBA is not alone in trying to rely on the media for certain contractual incentives. Baseball historically has not allowed bonuses for statistical achievement, which is concrete, but has allowed bonuses for voted-upon awards, which are abstract.
The media finally came to its senses in college football, after determining the national champion for decades and then helping decide the participants in a two-team playoff. We still pick a Heisman Trophy winner, which is squishy since that has half-a-century benefits for player and school. At least it's not directly tied to a championship.
But being the judge and jury on whether Bradley Beal and Klay Thompson and Karl-Anthony Towns get an extra $30 million? That can't happen.
The NBA should find other ways to determine whether a player is super-max worthy, or better yet, get rid of the stupid designation. If the Timberwolves want to pay Towns $50 million a year and can do it while managing the cap, let them. If the Warriors want to pay Thompson more than Steph Curry, fine. If the Wizards want to pay Beal what they're paying Wall, have at it.
The journalists whose job it is to cover the league should not be part of the process.