Turkish Players Paid $700K each for Winning Silver Medal

Semih Erden tells ESPN that he earned nearly double the amount from playing for Turkey this summer in the World Championship than he will for riding the pine in Boston all season long: “Erden told me that each of the players on the Turkish National Team that won the silver medal at last month’s World Championship received a bonus of 1 million Turkish Lira (about $700,000) along with a free villa/apartment, courtesy of a wealthy Turkish real estate mogul who wanted to reward them for their success. The members of the gold-medal winning Team USA were paid $25,000 apiece, Andre Iguodala said.  Erden, the NBA equivalent of the NFL’s Mr. Irrelevant as the 60th (and final) pick in the 2008 NBA draft, is expected to earn $473,604 during his rookie season this year. So for 10 games with the national squad, he’ll earn roughly 167% of his rookie salary (which could involve as many as 100 games between preseason, regular season, and playoffs).”