A weird idea that could change the NBA

[michael 26]

When I looked at all the teams struggling to stay under their salary cap I had an idea. What if the players would just ask to get paid less money. I noticed this especially when looking at the Knicks. Melo takes just so much of their cap space so that the team can't afford to pay for other good players (maybe it's because of Amare's monster contract, but you get the point).

 Imagine this: a star, for example LeBron, will resign with the Heat for say, 10 million a year. Yes you read right, imagine how much talent the Heat will be able to bring with all that money. I bet that if something like this happened it would start a complete revolution in the game. After the first team a lot of teams will probably start doing the same. Isn't 10M$ (not including endorsements) a year enough to afford anything you want? Shouldn't all these stars be focusing on winning and not on pretty much needless money?

I really don't know if such crazy thing would be good or bad for the NBA and I didn't think of it's repercussions. I just think that it would be very cool!

[wdleehi]

Didn't fans kill Lebron (and Bosh and Wade) for all taking less money so they could play together? 



And what is needless money? 

[Nef-Oracle]

Lebron taking $10m/yr??? Even if he's ring chasing i don't see him taking a huge paycut.

[michael 26]

The whole point is LeBron taking way less money. What I meant by needless money was that LeBron and those stars already have so much money that more wouldn't help them much. I know it's a weird concept but think about it.

[HomerSapien]

I believe Tim Duncan has been doing this for years, so it isn't such a novel concept. It can certainly happen under the right circumstances but I doubt you'll see it happen in the majority of the league.

Would you do your job for half price? Why should players feel obligated to cap there own earning power when they have 10ish years to earn a lifetime's worth of income? I feel like this "idea" is well intended but a little misguided.

[wdleehi]

The whole point is LeBron taking way less money. What I meant by needless money was that LeBron and those stars already have so much money that more wouldn't help them much. I know it's a weird concept but think about it.

But he did take less money. 


And they won two titles. 



Why should he sacrifice any more money? 

[perrin_goldeneyes]

Would you do your job for half price? Why should players feel obligated to cap there own earning power when they have 10ish years to earn a lifetime's worth of income? I feel like this "idea" is well intended but a little misguided.

If I made multiple millions a year? Sure, why not? These players don't just make a lifetime's worth of income in 10ish years, they make multiple lifetime's worths. With the paycheck I get today, I will have to work 40 years to get to 1 million (and then I couldn't spend any of it), and here in Belgium 70% of the people make less than me.

[Celtics4ever]

I have always that LeBron wants to be the first basketball billionaire.  I grew up in Ohio about 1.5 hours from him.  So he was always in the papers.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/394770-is-lebron-james-serious-about-becoming-the-first-billionaire-athlete

[pearljammer10]

They should make and take a heck of a lot less money but why would they.

Star Sports player A: "I want 20 million a year"

Owner and Management: "We'll give you 15."

Sports Player A: " I'll settle for taking 18 or I'll play elsewhere."

Management: "Ok we'll give you 18."

The owners and management are giving them they money, why wouldn't they take it. The NBA gets locked out so players can make more money. Majority of them would never settle for less.

[obnoxiousmime]

The whole point is LeBron taking way less money. What I meant by needless money was that LeBron and those stars already have so much money that more wouldn't help them much. I know it's a weird concept but think about it.

You've figured out the secret! No, actually there's a reason why it doesn't happen in professional sports. It's a business and players are trying to make as much money as possible while they can. When a player does take a discount it's usually only a slight one, or it's close to the end of their career when they probably should be making less anyway due to a pending decline in skills.

What you should be thinking is a "weird concept" is the entire notion of a salary cap and max salary limits in what is supposedly a free capitalist country. Why should players take less (making the owners happy) when their salaries are already artificially constricted? How do you decide which player takes less and which makes more? Why should LeBron, or any other superstar who is worth more than the max, take a massive pay cut so they can sign someone else less talented to a higher contract? Doesn't that strike you as "weird"?

Consider that these stars are already underpaid their first four years in the league due to the rookie wage scale. How much money did LeBron make for the league his first four years while he was stuck on a rookie deal? Shouldn't he have a right to make that money back?

Also, endorsements are only lucrative for a handful of top players. The other lesser stars still make most of their money from their contracts.

[D.o.s.]

Why don't more owners go into the luxury tax? They've got way more money than the players, without an expiration date on their income-generating abilities.

[fairweatherfan]

^^^^
Gah, beaten by a minute.

The whole point is LeBron taking way less money. What I meant by needless money was that LeBron and those stars already have so much money that more wouldn't help them much. I know it's a weird concept but think about it.

Applying that logic evenly, owners tend to be much wealthier than players, so why do they care about paying the luxury tax anyway?

[ram]

not a bad idea if the player(s), by winning championships, can make up the difference and more through endorsements.

[the_Bird]

The structure of the NBA is such that LeBron and other true "max" players are massively underpaid relative to the value they produce for their franchises.  Good luck with trying to convince them to take less. 

I think for a lot of these guys, it's not even really about the actual dollars.  At a certain point, each extra dollar doesn't mean all that much.  BUT - and you're never, ever going to change this - it's pride.  "My paycheck this big, and yours is this much smaller."   With the exception of veterans signing for smaller contracts to get into winning situations, this just isn't going to happen.

[Fafnir]

Man even forum topic titles are looking like upworthy links now....