Category: NBA (Page 312 of 595)

      Kobe chooses not to terminate contact, will remain a Laker

      July 1, 2009 /

      According to a report by SI.com, Kobe Bryant has decided not to terminate the final two years of his contract and will remain a Los Angeles Laker instead of becoming a free agent.

      Now the Lakers and Bryant’s agent will negotiate a contract extension. If they somehow cannot agree, he would earn $23 million next season and could opt out next June.

      However, Bryant has spent his entire 13-year career with the team, winning four NBA championships and on June 19 he said, “I’m not going anywhere. I know I ain’t going nowhere, so it’s just a waste of our breaths just talking about it.”

      Bryant has urged the Lakers to bring back unrestricted free agent forwards Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom, who played key roles in the team’s recent run to its 15th NBA title.

      Bryant will make a guaranteed $47.8 million over the next two years and could earn another $90 million with an extension. As the SI.com article notes, the Lakers can now turn their attention on retaining Ariza and Odom.

      Check back for TSR NBA guru John Paulsen’s take on this subject later.

      NBA

      Ranking the 50 highest-earning athletes

      July 1, 2009 /

      SI.com compiled a ranking of the 50 highest-earning American athletes and discovered that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are at the top of the list.

      1. Tiger Woods
      Pro Golf
      Last Year’s Rank: 1
      Salary/Winnings: $7,737,626
      Endorsements: $92,000,000
      Total: $99,737,626

      Tiger sacrificed millions in appearance fees during his year off to recover from knee surgery, but replaced his lucrative Buick deal — voided by mutual consent — with a new one from AT&T.

      2. Phil Mickelson
      Pro Golf
      Last Year’s Rank: 2
      Salary/Winnings: $6,350,356
      Endorsements: $46,600,000
      Total: $52,950,356

      Like Tiger, Phil no longer counts on a car-maker in his endorsement portfolio. (Ford chose not to re-sign him.) He still has lucrative deals with Rolex, Callaway, Exxon, Barclay’s and KPMG.

      3. LeBron James
      Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA)
      Last Year’s Rank: 3
      Salary/Winnings: $14,410,581
      Endorsements: $28,000,000
      Total: $42,410,581

      LeBron has one more season left under his deal before he can opt out. If Cleveland doesn’t show it’s Finals-worthy by next spring, expect the Knicks to come in with a huge offer.

      4. Alex Rodriguez
      New York Yankees (MLB)
      Last Year’s Rank: 6 (tie)
      Salary/Winnings: $33,000,000
      Endorsements: $6,000,000
      Total: $39,000,000

      We’re in the middle of A-Rod’s peak earning power in his middle-loaded, 10-year megadeal: He’ll make another $33 million in 2010 and then gradually decrease to a “normal” $20 million by ’17.

      No. 5 Shaquille O’Neal
      Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA)
      Last Year’s Rank: 6 (tie)
      Salary/Winnings: $20,000,000
      Endorsements: $15,000,000
      Total: $35,000,000

      The Big Bargaining Chip? Regardless of his trade to Cleveland, Shaq is in the final year of the five-year, $100 million deal he signed while with Miami. It’s the largest expiring deal in the NBA.

      No. 10 Peyton Manning
      Indianapolis Colts (NFL)
      Last Year’s Rank: 9
      Salary/Winnings: $14,500,000
      Endorsements: $13,000,000
      Total: $27,000,000

      NFL’s top endorser has distributed $500,000 in grants in ’09 through his PayBack Foundation to charities in Indianapolis, near his alma mater (Tennessee) and his hometown, New Orleans.

      It’s amazing that the highest paid NFL player (Peyton Manning) barely cracked the top 10. Granted, the NFL only has a 17-game regular season, but you’d think that for what football players put their bodies through every season that they would make more than baseball players, golfers and basketball players.

      Although he is pitching well this season despite his overall numbers, seeing Zito’s name on this list at No. 26 makes me shudder. He’s the third best pitcher (maybe fourth depending on how high you value Randy Johnson) on his own club, yet he’s the 26th highest-earning American athlete. Still, it should be noted that Zito donates $400 for every strikeout that he throws to the Strikeouts for Troops charity that he created to help hospitals treat soldiers that are wounded in military operations. In fact, as the article notes, a lot of the guys on this list give thousands of dollars to charities every year and that shouldn’t be overlooked.

      General Sports, Golf, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Soccer, Tennis

      NBA Free Agency Rumors: Turk, Charlie V, Millsap and more

      July 1, 2009 /

      Pistons, Blazers interested in Hedo Turkoglu.

      The Oregonian reports Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard and assistant general manager Tom Penn called agent Lon Babby last night to begin the courtship of Hedo Turkoglu.

      With Carlos Boozer out of the picture, an NBA source tells the Chicago Sun-Times that Turkoglu is now the Pistons’ first choice in free agency.

      While the Blazers’ interest has long been rumored, Detroit’s interest is a little surprising. They already have a very good small forward on the roster in Tayshaun Prince, so unless they’re planning to play Turkoglu at the four, someone is going to lose some minutes. Of the two teams, the Pistons have more cap space, so if they want him, they can get him. (And what about Ben Gordon?)

      Charlie V ahead of Turkoglu on the Pistons’ wishlist?

      Chicago’s Ben Gordon remains the backcourt player deeply coveted by the Pistons, but the prospect of a Gordon-and-Villanueva combo likely would be slightly cheaper than trying to sign Gordon and Turkoglu with Detroit’s nearly $19 million in projected salary-cap space.

      The Pistons may also be interested in Paul Millsap, but anytime a team signs a restricted free agent to an offer sheet, that money is tied up for a week while his current team decides to match. That makes signing an RFA a dicey prospect.

      I wonder if the Bucks are regretting letting Villanueva given the amount of interest he’s generating from their division rivals (Detroit and Cleveland).

      Continue reading »

      NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Boozer opts…in!

      June 30, 2009 /

      Tuesday Afternoon Update: Mehmet Okur is going to play the final year of his contract as well.

      Earlier today, we discussed the possibility of Carlos Boozer playing out the final year of his contract, and that’s exactly what he decided to do.

      Boozer’s decision was a reversal from his December comments to an ESPN.com reporter that he was planning to opt out and would get a raise regardless. The Jazz, however, long questioned if the market that Boozer believed existed was more fantasy than reality.

      In the end, it sounds as if Boozer considered his prospects and decided to take the sure $12.7 million instead of rolling the dice on the open market. If he is able to play at a high level and without injury, he stands to significantly improve his value heading into the summer of 2010. There are so many teams cutting salary in preparation for that summer’s free agent frenzy, so if he can stay healthy, he definitely stands to gain. However, by playing out the last year of this deal, he is forgoing the security of the long-term contract that he otherwise would have signed this summer. If he were to suffer a career-ending injury next season, he’d be leaving perhaps $42 million on the table.

      How does this affect the team’s payroll?

      The Jazz also are treading in dangerous territory in regard to the luxury tax. Boozer’s return gives them approximately $64.5 million in salary commitments to 10 players for the upcoming season.

      That’s before making decisions about re-signing Okur – should he opt out – and Millsap. The NBA’s luxury-tax threshold is expected to be around $70 million and the Jazz would have to carry at least a league-minimum 13 players on their roster.

      “It could be [a problem],” Miller said, “but it’s like I said before: If we need to go into the luxury tax to protect our players and protect our team, keep it intact, we’d have to take a look at that.”

      If Okur opts out, the Jazz projected payroll would be around $63 million, leaving some (but not a lot) of flexibility to sign Paul Millsap. If Okur plays out the final year of his deal, Utah will have to pay a steep luxury tax to re-sign Millsap. Essentially, if a franchise is over the luxury tax threshold, they have to pay a dollar-for-dollar tax. Simply stated, now that Boozer has opted in, if Okur opts in, it’s going to make it tougher for the Jazz to retain Millsap.

      I’m sure there are a few teams out there licking their chops at the prospect of signing Millsap.

      NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Pistons fire Michael Curry

      June 30, 2009 /

      Per ESPN…

      Hours before the start of NBA free agency, Detroit Pistons president Joe Dumars made a splash of a different sort Tuesday, firing coach Michael Curry after just one season amid ongoing concerns about Curry’s command of the locker room and fears that keeping him could hamper Detroit’s offseason business.

      NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that the Pistons — projected to have more spending money than any team in the league when the market opens for business at 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday — had been contemplating the move for weeks after Curry’s rocky debut season, and decided to go ahead with the change, in part to help maintain their position as the team with the most free-agent ammunition this summer.

      The Pistons went 39-43 under Curry in a tumultuous 2008-09 campaign that ended with a first-round playoff sweep against Cleveland. Curry gradually lost support from some of Detroit’s veterans — most notably popular shooting guard Rip Hamilton — after he elected to move Hamilton to the bench to accommodate November trade acquisition Allen Iverson.

      The article mentions Avery Johnson and Doug Collins (whose name is seemingly mentioned for every head coach opening) as possible replacements.

      NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

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