Friday, September 30th, 2011 at 11:05 am  |  64 responses

Dwyane Wade: With No Salary Cap, NBA Stars Could Earn $50 Million a Year


DWade tells Yahoo! Sports that the League’s biggest superstars could earn up to $50 mil per season if there was no salary cap, but believe it or not, he might be short-changing them (and himself): “Nowhere in sports is the superstar more vital than basketball, because the ball’s forever in the star’s hands and a singular talent has the most transformational impact. Let owners bid on the true value the elite stars bring to a franchise, to the league, and Wade was asked where he believes the bidding would rise per season? ‘I’m sure it would get to $50 million,’ Wade [said]. He’s right, and there’s still a compelling case that it wouldn’t properly compensate what a Kobe Bryant, a LeBron James, even means far beyond his own team. Privately, Jerry Buss has told people that Bryant – who will make a league-high $25 million this season under his current contract terms – is worth perhaps $70 million a year to the Los Angeles Lakers. James has been the most prodigious talent – the compelling serial character – the sport’s manufactured. This list is short, but the impact is immense. This is the largely unspoken truism of labor talks: The superstars are wildly underpaid, and the largely interchangeable rank-and-file players make far too much money. ‘In terms of driving revenue, if the NBA had no cap, the compensation would be totally different,’ Wade said. ‘Like baseball, where they have no cap, you see the players that they feel fill arenas, that people come out to see, A-Rod, those kind of guys, look at how much money they make on their deals. You’ve got guys – starting with Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe and LeBron – all players that individually people wanted to come to see. And wanted to just have a glimpse, just one glimpse, to be able to say that I’ve seen that person play. For what they’ve done for the game, what they’ve done for organizations, I don’t think you can really put a dollar amount on it.’”

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  • http://sajkflf.com Jukai

    True, single elimination games are a bad idea… but I really liked the 3/5 first round. The first round is so god damn long that it’s often frustrating. Shorten it. 3/5 can cause flukes, but not to the point where you have to rid it entirely.

  • Marcus Bastos

    If basketball required only one player “per team”, D-Wade is right. But we all know that the reality is different. At least, LeBron knows it.

  • http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2011/05/15/my-4th-annual-nba-no-defense-team-al-jefferson-monta-ellis-kobe-bryant-and-more/ nbk

    Yes izzo, my fault.

  • http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop Allenp

    Yeah, I preferred the five game first round, not these seven game stuff. More upsets in a five game series if the better team doesn’t come in with it’s mind right.

  • http://twitter.com/BeezKneezy LA Huey

    @Lakeshow, I live in Kirkland, for now. I’ve been hoping around on the Eastside since I moved up to the Pac-NW a decade ago.
    I miss the old 5-game 1st round series. More chance of an upset and if a team doesn’t stand a chance in the first place, the quicker they’re announced DOA.

  • http://www.twitter.com/dfrance21 dfrance21

    I think they should also shorten the season. Every team plays each other twice instead of playing teams in your conference 4 times. And why not make the first two rounds 3/5? The entire season does drag on too long, only the die hard fans can stay with it for the whole time.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

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  • seriousblack

    It isn’t just the hard cap that the players balk at. The owners want a 5% reduction on every salary for this upcoming season, and a bigger reduction for the next two on contracts ALREADY signed. The owners are disgustingly greedy.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlD1Uhs0mTQ what

    I know I am late but I have to respond to something JTaylor said. Baseball is doing fine with no salary cap because the talent pool is much, much deeper, the difference between superstar players and decent players is not that great, and one single superstar can’t singlehandedly make your team a contender. Basketball’s talent pool is much shallower because height is at such a premium, there is an enormous gulf between the LeBrons of the league and the Joe Johnsons of the league in terms of talent and impact on the game, and one single superstar has an inordinate amount of impact on the game compared to every other sport. It is possible for a team like the Rays to beat a team like the Red Sox or Yankees in a playoff series even if the talent level overall is inferior. It is absolutely impossible for a team like the Bobcats to beat a team like the Lakers or Heat in a playoff series.

  • Justin

    Obviously the reason for the best of 7 is added revenue dollars so I don’t think you will see the NBA change back anytime soon. A shortened season will never happen for the exact same reason. @seriousblack…You think the OWNERS are disgustingly greedy? What a joke! This lockout is strictly on the players. They’ve had it pretty damn good over the terms of the last CBA and it’s about time the owners took a stand. Yes, they’ve obviously made huge mistakes with certain contracts but enough is enough. Since when is getting paid $5-10M a season to play a game something to scoff at?

  • Brahsef

    @Justin, It’s not a game, it’s their job. And people pay big bucks to watch them play it. They deserve that kind of compensation.

    Now the mega deals that are guaranteed money need to be changed. Can’t have any more arenas, lewis’, houstons, etc.

    And the lockout is strictly on the players? The owners are the ones who literally caused the lockout, comeon now.

  • Cameron

    I don’t think anyone deserves that much money for playing a sport….just sayin’

  • http://www.gil1906.com Pve_2

    I never thought about the baseball comparison (because I don’t watch it), but Wade is entirely right.

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