Lebron says he would play for Europe for 50 mill

[cdif911]

three things

1) If the NBA eliminates the salary cap, guess who pays for it... we the fans - ticket prices would be astronomical especially for the better/more popular teams who can charge whatever they want - think about how mich tickets go for on stubhub right now - that would be your baseline for prices - scary stuff

2) I see this European "trend" imploding at some point. I just can't see these teams bringing in the revenue to support a marginal player at 8-10 mil per year - to bring in Lebron for 50+ per year, I just can't see a team making that back

3) If a team does take Lebron, perhaps Stern goes in to panic mode and offers the team a deal to be an expansion team in the NBA, hey crazier things have happened

[cdif911]

Why exactly would the NBA have to change anything if one superstar player were to leave the NBA for Europe? I don't understand the over reaction to all this.

The league gets a new influx of talent every year. New stars and superstars develop every year. The owners are making money, good money. Their franchises are increasing in value every year.

Why would there have to be a change?

LeBron even admitted it would be a short term thing.

Remember something people this league survived the loss of Michael Jordan in his prime for two years so that Michael could take a gambling break, err, I mean go play baseball.

This league would continue on without LeBron and even if the loss is that of LeBron and 2-3 other superstars. Nothing as reactionary as the CBA being thrown out the window is going to happen because a few superstars decide they want to take a rich sabbatical overseas for a couple of years. They will be back.

It would change because the NBA champions would no longer be viewed as "world champions" or the best team in the world. There would be many other teams from europe that could legitimately make the same claim, and thus take a lot of the luster out of watching the NBA. Stern new this day was coming, which is why he has been trying to expand to europe eventually, it's just that the value of the dollar vs the euro has sped things up and made it more difficult for the NBA.

this could lead to the birth of the IBA - the International Basketball Association - I still think its weird that we have a National Basketball Association with a Canadian team in it... same thing with National Hockey League, heck even the Blue Jays being in the "American" League, is a little weird...

[GaBerkowitz]

On the taxes and exchange issues.  Obviously with the Dollar declining the worth of the Euro is increasing, making it easier for an owner to pay Lebron $50 million U.S. which is only something along the lines of 32-33 million Euros.  So while thats still no chump change, it does make it easier.  Also on the tax issue.  In the Childress contract for example he is being paid 7 mil a year (I believe).  In fact his actual contract is for something like 8.2 mil while the club is just paying the taxes for him.  Apparently this is done quite frequently by European clubs in their attempt to acquire top flight talent.  So 50 mil for Lebron is really 60 mil, with the club just paying the taxes on excess directly.

I think it would be kind of cool to see Lebron go overseas.  It really depends on what his goals are.  If its to become the best basketball player, going overseas will tarnish that a bit.  (unless of course he wins championships and breaks records in spite of missing prime years while in Europe).  However, if his goal is to make money and become a global icon, why not go to Spain, or Greece, or Russia to make that happen. 

At the end of the day however I am highly skeptical of LeBron going overseas.  While I have no concept of the difference between 750 million, and 1 billion dollars.  I believe guys like Lebron, the 1%ers who really are the best in the world only have one stage to prove their dominance on, and that is right here in the good ole NB of A.  Winning Euroleague titles, and scoring 90 on some half assed Greek club team wont elevate him to Jordan status.  Only rings (about 6) and records will do that.

[BigDanz2000]

If you think about it, what does Lebron really get out of it besides money? not much.  He will already be the biggest and best player in Europe, but what does that do to his NBA legacy? not much.  Lebron can spin it anyway he wants, that he was leaving for different or better competition, see the world, blah blah blah, it doesnt really matter. 
If Lebron leaves the NBA for a short period of time or forever he is really ruining his NBA image as a player.
What could have been if he stayed in the NBA. 
If he does leave for Europe, I will always think of Lebron as chasing the money and nothing else, not playing for the love of the game.

Also how else is he going to pay for his 35,000 sq ft home in cleveland?

[JSD]

Why exactly would the NBA have to change anything if one superstar player were to leave the NBA for Europe? I don't understand the over reaction to all this.

The league gets a new influx of talent every year. New stars and superstars develop every year. The owners are making money, good money. Their franchises are increasing in value every year.

Why would there have to be a change?

LeBron even admitted it would be a short term thing.

Remember something people this league survived the loss of Michael Jordan in his prime for two years so that Michael could take a gambling break, err, I mean go play baseball.

This league would continue on without LeBron and even if the loss is that of LeBron and 2-3 other superstars. Nothing as reactionary as the CBA being thrown out the window is going to happen because a few superstars decide they want to take a rich sabbatical overseas for a couple of years. They will be back.

It would change because the NBA champions would no longer be viewed as "world champions" or the best team in the world. There would be many other teams from europe that could legitimately make the same claim, and thus take a lot of the luster out of watching the NBA. Stern new this day was coming, which is why he has been trying to expand to europe eventually, it's just that the value of the dollar vs the euro has sped things up and made it more difficult for the NBA.

this could lead to the birth of the IBA - the International Basketball Association - I still think its weird that we have a National Basketball Association with a Canadian team in it... same thing with National Hockey League, heck even the Blue Jays being in the "American" League, is a little weird...

I agree with you up until the Blue Jays. After all, Canadians are still North Americans

[guava_wrench]

* August 6th 2008

Euro = 1
US = 1.5437

if my arithmetic is correct, that means the Euro contract would be equivalent to 75 million.



* http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=EUR&to=USD&submit=Convert

Didn't he say $50 million, not 50 million euros?

There's nothing to convert!

[zerophase]

lebron is too greedy. but if he leaves the nba, i'd rejoice. just a better chance of a celtics championship.

[guava_wrench]

I also read that the taxes on a European contract are minor compared to a US salary.  So, with that in mind, $50MM from Europe would be about 4 times a $20MM from an NBA team in terms of take-home pay.  Hell yes, he'll consider it.

The clubs usually pay the taxes, not the players. That is what I've read. That's a good deal.

[guava_wrench]

lebron is too greedy.

Why? You wouldn't work in Europe for a 250% of your salary and no taxes? That would also be a great experience for him. He doesn't have to stay there for the offseason if he doesn't want to.

[Bankshot]

lebron is too greedy. but if he leaves the nba, i'd rejoice. just a better chance of a celtics championship.

Agreed.  After his comments several years ago about wanting to be the richest athlete in the world, I soured on him.  If he wants to go play oversees, why does he need to be offered $50Mil to do it?  It's not like he needs the money.  He just wants to have more money than anyone else, which he already admitted to.  The definition of greedy.

[guava_wrench]

three things

1) If the NBA eliminates the salary cap, guess who pays for it... we the fans - ticket prices would be astronomical especially for the better/more popular teams who can charge whatever they want - think about how mich tickets go for on stubhub right now - that would be your baseline for prices - scary stuff

What is the relevance of stubhub to salaries? Stubhub scalps tickets! That money doesn't go to the teams.

StubHub is priced based off of demand, not based off of the teams expenses. Stubhub is a lot close to the limit than the baseline.

A bigger problem is why would people abroad want to watch the NBA and buy NBA jerseys when they have players who are just as good? That is the problem with someone like Lebron playing in Europe.

[bleedingreen]

I wish they'd just change the headline on realgm to:  Source: Everyone and Their Mom Might Go To Europe For $50M Per Year

[BballTim]

I posted this in Steve Weinmans article, but I'd like to see a comparison of Beckham's situation to the one that LeBron could be in.

I think people could rush to throw this scenario out because Europe is a soccer continent, not a basketball one, but that didn't keep LA from giving Beckham the quarter billion dollar contract, and it's not keeping him from making any less endorsements, either.

If he wants to be 'Global Icon' James, the next step is either Europe or China.

  MLS has funky salary rules. They have a salary cap, and a max salary for players. However the max salary for the players is the max amount that counts towards the cap. So if you pay a player $700k your cap hit will be around $400k. I'm not sure how they decide who gets more than the max, but I think those salaries have to be under $1M. Additionally you can have 1-2 designated players who you can pay as much as you want. There's 1 per team but a team can trade away their DP slot for a few years if they don't plan on using it.

  As for Beckham, his salary is $10M a year, or $50M over 5 years. His deal can be worth $250M over 5 years, but that includes a share in increased revenue for the team and probably the league as well as a big cut of the Beckham jersey sales. World-wide, that's huge, as he's extremely popular in places like China and Korea and Japan as well as europe.
 

[celticben]

Let him go to Europe.  The media would make a big deal made about his first game or even season, but after that forget it.  Lebron would be an afterthought to American sports fans.  I don't think that is something he would risk.  NBA championships are what matter.  He can rack up all the Euro league titles he wants and no one would care.

[zerophase]

lebron is too greedy. but if he leaves the nba, i'd rejoice. just a better chance of a celtics championship.

Agreed.  After his comments several years ago about wanting to be the richest athlete in the world, I soured on him.  If he wants to go play oversees, why does he need to be offered $50Mil to do it?  It's not like he needs the money.  He just wants to have more money than anyone else, which he already admitted to.  The definition of greedy.

exactly. TP.