He took a pay cut after his 2nd retirement, not his first.
Not that Jordan didn't deserve it, but that salary is crazy. He made $30m in '97, and $33m in '98. It took until 2013 for another player, Kobe Bryant, to finally break the $30m mark again.
Look at everybody else in '98. Shaq made $13m, Mourning made $11m, Hakeem made $11m, Karl Malone made $5m, Barkley made $2m, Gary Payton made $11m, Penny Hardaway made $8m, Patrick Ewing made $20m, Juwan Howard made $11m, etc. Kevin Garnett signed a contract during the '98 season that would pay him $14m in '99.
The average salary then was $2.37m, the average salary now is $5.15m.
I think the NBA's revenue has basically doubled in that time frame. From about $2.5B to like $5B. That would be like the equivalent of Kobe or LeBron making $66m last year.
Crazy, but he was worth every penny, if not more.
The reality is if there was not individual salary limits some team would have offered Lebron in excess of 50 million and he would have been worth every penny of it.
Not if there was a salary cap. That would make for an interesting dynamic though. Pit a team with LeBron and some mid-level and lower players vs teams that have a more balanced roster.
Topic: When Jordan came back, wearing the 4-5. (Read 7692 times)