Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 11:00 am  |  40 responses

Celtics Saved $2 Million By Benching Nate Robinson

It’s a cold world out there, especially when it comes to dealing with the bean counters in NBA front-offices, as Lil’ Nate recently found out. From ESPN: “Boston Celtics guard Nate Robinson was benched for two games near the end of the regular season, and it cost him $1 million, while saving the team twice that amount. A clause in Robinson’s contract calls for him to make a $1 million bonus if he both played in at least 58 games and made the playoffs this season. Robinson’s Celtics are in the postseason but he played in 56 games. As a result, the Celtics saved the $1 million they would have paid Robinson — equivalent to a quarter of his reported annual salary — and an additional $1 million they would have owed in luxury tax to the NBA (most of which would have been distributed to teams with payrolls below the luxury tax threshold). Robinson, a 5-foot-9 guard and three-time slam dunk champion, had a difficult season but was on track to make the bonus until its final days.”

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  • niQ Posted: May.6 at 11:04 am
    Arms…

  • Babygab Posted: May.6 at 11:13 am
    It’s a cold world out there indeed looool !

  • kboogie201 Posted: May.6 at 11:17 am
    Word Aaappp

  • dnewton Posted: May.6 at 11:24 am
    that is some cold ish right there it’s like they straight robbed the kid smh

  • Morgan Posted: May.6 at 11:47 am
    doesn’t that mean Nate gained 1 mil by getting traded to the Celtics? Lets face it, he wasn’t getting any of that 2 mil at New York with a bench-happy Coach headed for the Lottery.

  • chiqo Posted: May.6 at 11:57 am
    ha, awesome.

  • Spaceship Jay Posted: May.6 at 11:59 am
    That’s tough. Tough enough to make you not smile anymore in life.

  • vtrobot Posted: May.6 at 12:45 pm
    Waaaaaaaaah. He’s still a very lucky dude. Too bad for Nate, but $$$$ well spent by the C’s.

  • BostonBaller Posted: May.6 at 1:03 pm
    Smart business…it’s not like he earned that $$ playing gor the Green

  • Yesse Posted: May.6 at 1:09 pm
    Now that’s cold. Nate is a good player. He doesnt deserve treatment like this.

  • JL Posted: May.6 at 1:26 pm
    looks like the knicks knew they were sweetening the trading chips when they benched him earlier inexplicably! good insight.

  • BackInBlack Posted: May.6 at 1:49 pm
    this guy needs to be on a team like the magic or the lakers

  • Kendrick is God Posted: May.6 at 1:56 pm
    to be fair he still made more than most people make in their lifetime! Good business by the C’s

  • M Cho Posted: May.6 at 2:11 pm
    Glad the C’s saved money – that Eddie House/Nate Rob trade sucked. Eddie could actually be playing useful minutes in the playoffs, while Nate is just glued to the pine.

  • mj23 Posted: May.6 at 2:45 pm
    Smart move by the Celtics. I agree, Eddie House was more valuable for the playoffs than Nate. He was a threat from 3 pt. range, and would’ve helped against the Cavs.

  • BostonBaller Posted: May.6 at 2:54 pm
    I do miss eddie and his 3′s and we could use that spark from time to time but he was a liability bringing the ball up as a pg. If rondo had to sit out for an extended amount of time then we wouldn’t have a real pg at all.

  • wayno Posted: May.6 at 3:52 pm
    Oh no! A multi milionaire didn’t get 1 million more dollars that he doesn’t deserve! Waaaaah!!

  • wayno Posted: May.6 at 3:52 pm
    Oh no! A multi milionaire didn’t get 1 million more dollars that he doesn’t deserve! Waaaaah!!

  • wayno Posted: May.6 at 3:52 pm
    Oh no! A multi milionaire didn’t get 1 million more dollars that he doesn’t deserve! Waaaaah!!

  • M Cho Posted: May.6 at 4:08 pm
    @BostonBaller: yeah, I know House wasn’t really a ball handler, but its not like the C’s are using Nate as Rondo’s backup right now either — they’re playing Tony Allen. Nate is some deadwood at the end of the bench.

  • wayno Posted: May.6 at 4:40 pm
    whoa, holy triple post…my bad people.

  • Hambone Posted: May.6 at 5:45 pm
    short and broke damn

  • Tarzan Cooper Posted: May.6 at 7:12 pm
    Thats dirty. It was in his contract. He should have gotten it.

  • TimProvise Posted: May.6 at 10:40 pm
    He can blame dantoni for that, he hit nate with DNP-CD for a long span

  • Dave Posted: May.6 at 10:45 pm
    I somehow doubt he’ll be back after that.

  • Dillan Posted: May.7 at 1:10 am
    Good business!!

  • Natalie Posted: May.7 at 2:12 am
    Isn’t there a “good faith” clause somewhere? Or aren’t all contracts assumed to be followed “in good faith?” Doesn’t seem like that move remotely qualifies. Wonder if Nate has any cause to sue?

  • Chukaz Posted: May.7 at 3:30 am
    @Natalie he didn’t play cuz he’s a scrub. It ain’t like if they didn’t play him now they would save money. He ain’t playin cuz he ain’t good enough. How the f*ck is this dude gettin 4 mil a year? No wonder the owner want more control over player salaries

  • Flash Posted: May.7 at 6:28 am
    whats nate got to say about this?

  • BostonBaller Posted: May.7 at 8:30 am
    @M Cho, You are absolutely correct about him being on the bench right now & TA is doing a decent job right now but just in case they need a speedy guard for a period of time who can control the ball he is there. @ Natalie, there are no grounds to sue, this was all legit business and if there is a gripe on Nate’s part it’s w/ NY.

  • Josh Posted: May.7 at 8:57 am
    Why would you sign a contract that gives the team an incentive not to play you.

  • vtrobot Posted: May.7 at 9:14 am
    He should sue because his feelings were hurt. @ Josh: I don’t think Nate had a whole ton of other, better contracts being offered to him.

  • ClydeSays Posted: May.7 at 9:59 am
    Some team accountant was angling for a promotion.
    “Hey, I just reviewed the player contracts again… If Nate Robinson doesn’t play 58 games…” That said, that was a contract that Robinson agreed to and signed while he was on the Knicks…

  • dfrance21 Posted: May.7 at 10:09 am
    Guys this was a bonus, so its not like he got cheated out of a portion of his salary. There are no grounds to sue and he didn’t sign a contract that was screwing himself either. Boston just got lucky that they spotted it. Remember, had D’Antoni not benched him all those games, this wouldn’t even be possible for the C’s to pull off.

  • Jorge Posted: May.7 at 10:42 am
    I vote for taking One Million off their salary every time a player misses a free throw in a playoff game in the final 10 seconds when the game is tied.
    That should be the rule.

  • Kent Kanada Posted: May.7 at 1:11 pm
    @Jorge – Thats completely rediculous and would never ever happen, but if were living in fantasy land… They should divide the million up and give it to all the fans at the game.

  • Hursty Posted: May.7 at 8:38 pm
    Nate never lost the money. He never had it to begin with.

  • Dave Posted: May.7 at 11:38 pm
    - “Mike? Dolan here. has that little punk injured himself yet? No? Can you bench him for, say, thirty games or so? I don’t know, tell the media he’s not playing hard enough or something.”
    - “Dolan here. Hey Mike. What? He scored 40 off the bench? Are you serious? ^#$*&@. Fine. Trade the little punk, would you? I never should have let Donnie resign him in the first place.”

  • SAB Posted: May.8 at 11:09 am
    wtf. 1) it’s a stupid clause to put in a contract, 2) that’s just a sensible business move – why burn £2m just for the sake of it?

  • a-dubb Posted: Jun.3 at 3:09 pm
    ok foreal why get upset over 1 mill when u know ur gonna make the playoffs, nate ain’t worried about that at all, the media is tryin to blow this all up, im from the 206 and at first we was happy to see christie and terry go to the nba, and now its about roy, crawford, and nate making the playoffs, there all friends but they want to see who gets a ring first and out of luck it look like it might be nate because he was not gonna get 1 out of ny so we are all happy he’s outta there, so why would nate be mad.

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