yea, contracts then compared to contracts now.
Also, recall that Kevin Gamble came out of the CBA, he was making next to nothing and had that underdog aspect because he had to go through the CBA to make the NBA. His 'BIG CONTRACT' was his first contract where he got paid 'real' money that recognized him beyond a 'borderline CBA'er gone NBA' - but that 'real money' wasn't stratospheric, but to Kevin Gamble it was huge compared to what he had been making. It just seemed to me after that, maybe he feared injury - but he stopped driving to the hoop (which was his bread and butter) and started shooting and consistently hitting his midrange jumper, which might have been effective, but wasn't what made me come to love him as a player.