Lebron being a laker?

[nextnba]

http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/smith_091102.html

Sometime it's annoying to see people write things for no reason other than just writing it. Lebron is 24...the most important thing to him at this age is $$$$. The only thing we know for sure is that he wants a huge contract..he wants to move from being the #20 in pay to the #1 0r #2. This completely eliminate the Laker, who currently has the highest payroll. What are thing going to do, offer Kobe $25, Lebron $25, Gasol $20, and fire everyone else..including Bynum who is making $15.

[Dee.]

No God Damn Way.

[Oznogrd]

http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/smith_091102.html

Sometime it's annoying to see people write things for no reason other than just writing it. Lebron is 24...the most important thing to him at this age is $$$$. The only thing we know for sure is that he wants a huge contract..he wants to move from being the #20 in pay to the #1 0r #2. This completely eliminate the Laker, who currently has the highest payroll. What are thing going to do, offer Kobe $25, Lebron $25, Gasol $20, and fire everyone else..including Bynum who is making $15.

You really think he needs more dough? Jeez. You're more cynical than me.

[Fresh8]

Wasting your time reading shit like that. Never gonna happen.

[Andrew]

Lebron is 24...the most important thing to him at this age is $$$$. The only thing we know for sure is that he wants a huge contract..he wants to move from being the #20 in pay to the #1 0r #2.

Do we know that for sure? Considering he's bound to make a lot of money wherever he ends up signing, I highly doubt that money is the deciding factor. And if it is, then we can rule out everywhere but Cleveland because under the CBA, no one can pay him more than they can. Having said that, it's not likely LeBron is going to sign anywhere for the MLE but all things being equal I expect he'll sign with the team where he feels he'll have the best shot at competing for a championship.

As for LeBron going to the Lakers, I don't think we could rule out anything out. Many of us scoffed at the idea of Karl Malone and Gary Payton joining the Lakers prior to the 2003/2004 season yet it happened. Obviously that was a different situation as they were at the tail end of their careers and willing to accept smaller roles (and yes, smaller contracts) but the point is that the seemingly unexpected can happen. However, I think the chances of it happening are very slim at this juncture. Sam Smith is pinning the possibility on the Lakers' success and Cleveland's struggles out of the gate, but I disagree that they're "backsliding". It's early days and they wouldn't be the first contender in the history of the NBA (maybe champion?) to get out to a slow start and if anything, the Cavs took a huge leap forward last year. I still give the Cavs the best chance of signing LeBron next year, assuming the season doesn't turn into a complete disaster.

[kingjames23]

he's already made $46,000,000 give or take so far in his career, and double or triple that in endorsements. at what point does money not become a deciding factor?

when it comes down to winning NBA titles.

even so, Kobe's contract is up in 2011, i believe. which means the Lakers could sign Lebron to a contract where his salary increases each year, but would be small enough during Kobe's last contract year that they could squeak under the salary cap. it would be a matter of both being willing to take a small cut in pay from there to be the most dynamic duo ever to play. its like jordan and pippen all over again, but neither quite as good as jordan, but both better than pippen....

its a pipe dream. but if Lebron does decide to jump ship, then trading Lebron to the Lakers for half their team would be a DEAL. cleveland would pull the trigger rather than losing Lebron for nothing but cap space

also... Lebron and Gasol... make within a million of each other. i see a straight up trade of 2 players with expiring contracts.



Gasol in 2010/11 = $17,822,187
Lebron in 2010/11 = $17,149,243 (player option)








will it happen? doubtful.

[kingjames23]

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/cleveland.htm

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/la_lakers.htm

proof of salaries right there...

[nextnba]

Karl Malone and Gary Payton joining the Lakers prior to the 2003/2004 season yet

These were two people who were ageing and at to the point, where adding a ring was more important. Similar to where R. Allen and Garnett are now. Besides Duncan, I have yet to see another player who was willing to accept to less to win. And of course, we all know Duncan is rare like that. Lebron said last year that he would go oversea if a team offers him $30/year! I can see Lebron and Kobe hooking up 5 years from now, when they maxed out their salary and looking to win rings. Any player will say winning ring is more important because it’s politically correct, but I bet anyone here that he will sign with a team that offers the highest pay. I don't think he will accept anything less than $20/year even if it means winning a ring! Players want to know that they are appreciated and they do that with pay.

[Oznogrd]

next: i'm not saying you're wrong. The majority of them will take the highest pay. But did you ever think maybe he's not just being PC by wanting a ring? Maybe he's actually speaking the truth rather than just covering up? He will not be a laker after next year. It'd be a stupid move on both teams parts. As great as Kobe and Lebron are...you need more than 2 guys to win a championship.

[kingjames23]

this Laker team -Gasol +Lebron = better than they are right now. Bynum is an up and comer in the post, Artest is a defensive beast, Fish is still serviceable, and there is a lot of young talent off the bench.

like i said, money isnt everything. he gets 100 million from nike alone. when does a guy say, hmmm... you know what, 100,000,000 just isnt enough to buy all the shit i need anymore? lets be realistic here.

lebron already makes more money than jordan did, way more. jordan had 2 big contract years, see below.


Salaries

Season Team Lg Salary
1984-85 Chicago Bulls NBA $550,000
1985-86 Chicago Bulls NBA $630,000
1986-87 Chicago Bulls NBA $737,500
1987-88 Chicago Bulls NBA $845,000
1988-89 Chicago Bulls NBA $2,000,000
1989-90 Chicago Bulls NBA $2,250,000
1990-91 Chicago Bulls NBA $2,500,000
1991-92 Chicago Bulls NBA $3,250,000
1992-93 Chicago Bulls NBA $4,000,000
1993-94 Chicago Bulls NBA $4,000,000
1994-95 Chicago Bulls NBA $3,850,000
1995-96 Chicago Bulls NBA $3,850,000
1996-97 Chicago Bulls NBA $30,140,000
1997-98 Chicago Bulls NBA $33,140,000
2001-02 Was Wizards NBA $1,000,000
2002-03 Was Wizards NBA $1,030,000
Career $93,772,500


he made less every year than Lebron does now, with the exception of 97,98.


how were the bulls able to surround MJ with a good set of role players? Mike wasn't greedy. his teammates weren't greedy

if Lebron was smart, money wouldnt be his deciding factor. teaming with kobe would ensure titles, the competition between the two of them in practice to "be the best" would push them both out of Jordan's shadow. day in day out dogging each other, learning from each other. the potential is sickening. once Kobe retired, leaving the reigns to lebron, then James could get a big payday and finish out his career as the most dominant player in the game.

again, will it happen? i doubt it.

[Cartar]

how were the bulls able to surround MJ with a good set of role players? Mike wasn't greedy. his teammates weren't greedy

And it's not like the salary cap was half as much as it is up to date. Jordan's salary single-handedly was bigger than the salary cap during the 96-97 and 97-98 season.

[Andrew]

These were two people who were ageing and at to the point, where adding a ring was more important. Similar to where R. Allen and Garnett are now.

I did acknowledge the difference in the situations in the sentence after the one you quoted. My point was that the seemingly unlikely can happen, but I would agree that in this case "highly unlikely" might as well mean "won't".

Any player will say winning ring is more important because it’s politically correct, but I bet anyone here that he will sign with a team that offers the highest pay.

Again, if that's the case then he's not leaving Cleveland because under the rules of the CBA, no team can offer him more than Cleveland. Period.

[kingjames23]

so lebron has to look at it like this, "i make money in CLEVELAND,(right Andrew?) but if we dont win a title in the next year or so, do i want to stay and make that money or go where i am going to win a title... or a dozen."

[Andrew]

That's the way I see it. LeBron is going to get paid handsomely no matter what as I don't see him settling for the MLE, so it comes back to where he'd rather play, which I would suggest is strongly influenced by the team's ability to compete. Cleveland also has the possible advantage of being his "hometown" team, but if loses confidence in them then I could see that being less of a factor.

[Patr1ck]

He could end up doing something like Kevin Garnett: Stick with Cleveland until it falls apart and then end up as a piece in a team built for a championship.

[dare]

But Lebron is only 24 I think its too young for him to do what garnett did Im just saying Lebron can have a title in 2 or 3 years if he make the right decisions..

[Andrew]

But Lebron is only 24 I think its too young for him to do what garnett did Im just saying Lebron can have a title in 2 or 3 years if he make the right decisions..

I think Pdub's talking about several years from now. Seems like a feasible scenario to me if he re-signs for the maximum six years and the Cavs don't win a title or two during that span.

[Bodz]

Source

"I think at the end of the day, a max deal or anything like that doesn't really matter to me at the end of the day. It's all about winning for me," James said.

Perhaps the possibilities are endless at this point; he could be signing for any team so long as it can compete for a championship title.


And Shaq being Shaq has even offered $10m to LeBron to reveal his plans... haha... Source

Shaquille O'Neal teasingly offered LeBron James significant cash if he would announce his 2010 intentions immediately and put an end to the rampant speculation.

"Five million if you do it right now,'' said O'Neal.

''No way. I'm not doing that,'' James replied laughing.

''Ten million. Cash. In a bag at your house,'' countered O'Neal.

[Andrew]

Comments like that are admittedly good PR, but all the same I don't think we can disregard them completely. I would suggest LeBron would quite comfortably settle for being one of the highest paid players in the league rather than the highest paid player in the league if he felt it was a good career move in terms of being on a team that can contend. So again, unless he does the highly unlikely and signs somewhere for the MLE, he'll get a huge contract wherever he goes so it comes down to where he wants to play and a team's ability to contend seems like the logical deciding factor in that regard.

[benji]

lebron already makes more money than jordan did, way more. jordan had 2 big contract years, see below.

he made less every year than Lebron does now, with the exception of 97,98.


how were the bulls able to surround MJ with a good set of role players? Mike wasn't greedy.

Um, I don't think you know anything about the history of NBA salaries.

Magic, Jordan, Pippen, etc. all these guys wound up underpaid as they neared the end of their careers because they signed longterm contracts early, and then salaries rapidly escalated at the start of the 1990s leaving them far more underpaid than worse players. It wasn't due to any kind of lack of greed but circumstances that prevented it.

Look at any star drafted in the 1980s, they will have the same poor salary progression until about 1995. They signed their "big" deals right before the salary explosion of the 1990s and were stuck on $3-5 million a year contracts that were "max" money when they signed them. Did you know Charles Barkley never made more than $5 milion a year until his final season? Magic never made more than $3 million. (His 94-95 salary figure was the Lakers paying him the remainder of his contract in a lump sum to clear it from their cap.) Karl Malone ever only made "max money" because he played so long he was able to sign another major contract at age 35.

We won't even talk about inflation.

his teammates weren't greedy

And now I definitely know you don't know anything about the history of the Chicago Bulls.

Jordan and Pippen both hated Kukoc and management because that "filthy Euro" was making more or as much per year than they ever did. It's why Jordan demanded the largest contract in NBA history. It's why Pippen and the Bulls had the fallout they did. Other than Jordan, Kukoc is the highest paid player on the second three-peat. And he wasn't making a huge amount of money, it was like a $20 million over five year contract.

Hakeem bitched about the same stuff, it's why he held out, it's why he built tons of options into his contracts so he'd never again be underpaid.

[kingjames23]

IS THIS WHAT YOU ARE DRAWING YOUR CONCLUSIONS FROM?

alot of players on those teams were over or underpaid.
1990/91


1 Michael Jordan $2,500,000
2 Bill Cartwright $1,100,000
3 Stacey King $1,000,000
4 Horace Grant $1,000,000
5 Dennis Hopson $915,000
6 Scottie Pippen $765,000
7 Cliff Levingston $750,000
8 Craig Hodges $600,000
9 Will Perdue $450,000
10 B.J. Armstrong $425,000
11 John Paxson $385,000
12 Scott Williams $150,000


91/92

1 Michael Jordan $3,250,000
2 Scottie Pippen $2,770,000
3 Bill Cartwright $2,000,000
4 Horace Grant $1,750,000
5 John Paxson $1,600,000
6 Cliff Levingston $1,350,000
7 Stacey King $1,100,000
8 Dennis Hopson $950,000
9 Craig Hodges $700,000
10 Bob Hansen $600,000
11 Will Perdue $500,000
12 B.J. Armstrong $435,000
13 Scott Williams $350,000
14 Mark Randall $180,000
15 Rory Sparrow $126,000
16 Chuck Nevitt $118,000

92/93


1 Michael Jordan $4,000,000
2 Scottie Pippen $3,425,000
3 Bill Cartwright $2,200,000
4 Horace Grant $1,900,000
5 Stacey King $1,400,000
6 John Paxson $1,200,000
7 Rodney McCray $1,075,000
8 Ed Nealy $800,000
9 Darrell Walker $735,000
10 Will Perdue $625,000
11 Scott Williams $613,000
12 Bob Hansen $600,000
13 B.J. Armstrong $540,000
14 Craig Hodges $400,000
15 Trent Tucker $350,000
16 Corey Williams $200,000
17 Jo Jo English *$140,000
18 Joe Courtney *$140,000
19 Ricky Blanton $8,000



95/96

1 Michael Jordan $3,850,000
2 Toni Kukoc $3,560,000
3 Ron Harper $3,120,000
4 Scottie Pippen $2,925,000
5 Dennis Rodman $2,500,000
6 John Salley $2,402,000
7 Luc Longley $2,300,000
8 Bill Wennington $1,000,000
9 Randy Brown $900,000
10 Dickey Simpkins $845,000
11 Steve Kerr $800,000
12 Jason Caffey $627,000
13 Larry Krystkowiak *$335,000
14 Jud Buechler $300,000
15 Jack Haley $225,000
16 James Edwards $225,000


96/97

1 Michael Jordan $30,140,000
2 Dennis Rodman $9,000,000
3 Toni Kukoc $3,960,000
4 Ron Harper $3,840,000
5 Luc Longley $2,790,000
6 Scottie Pippen $2,250,000
7 Randy Brown $1,300,000
8 Dickey Simpkins $1,040,000
9 Robert Parish $1,000,000
10 Bill Wennington $1,000,000
11 Steve Kerr $750,000
12 Jason Caffey $700,000
13 Jud Buechler $500,000
14 Bison Dele *$247,500
15 Matt Steigenga *$220,000


97/98

1 Michael Jordan $33,140,000
2 Toni Kukoc $4,560,000
3 Ron Harper $4,560,000
4 Dennis Rodman $4,500,000
5 Luc Longley $3,184,900
6 Scottie Pippen $2,775,000
7 Bill Wennington $1,800,000
8 Scott Burrell $1,430,000
9 Randy Brown $1,260,000
10 Dickey Simpkins $1,235,000
11 Robert Parish $1,150,000
12 Jason Caffey $850,920
13 Steve Kerr $750,000
14 David Vaughn $693,840
15 Keith Booth $597,600
16 Jud Buechler $500,000
17 Joe Kleine $272,250
18 Rusty LaRue *$242,000

[Andrew]

Salaries were much smaller in the early 90s, as was the salary cap. Michael Jordan's $2.5 mil in 1990/1991 made him the eighth highest paid player in the league, which at the time had a salary cap of around $11.9 million.