Race to the Bottom thread
- Thread starter iowamcnabb
- Start date
Folsomkingsfan
Starter
The NBA has created a model where the top free agents only want to go to the same 5 teams and competitive teams that cost families hundreds of dollars to go see rest entire starting lineups some nights but they are most worried about teams with sub .300 records that no one cares about sitting players no one is paying to go see 2/3 of the way through a lost season. Give me a break.
eleventy
G-League
with the exception of lebron, NO ONE (from the nba) makes more in endorsements than they do in salary
if there are 450 nba players, are there more than twenty who make even $10 million annually in endorsements?
(turns out, the number is 18 - making 10 mil or more annually (if you say "more than 10 mil annually", the number drops to 12)
i just looked it up on sportico and what surprised me most was the vast differences in outside earnings (endorsements) between players.
this is a list of the top 100 athletes counting salary and endorsements (soccer players at the top):
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Highest-Paid Athletes in the World: Full List
Cristiano Ronaldo was the highest-paid athlete in the world in 2025, earning $260 million.
www.sportico.com
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the "endorsement" leader (#8) is Ohtani with 100 million (but only 2.5 mil in "salary")
at #100 is OG Anuoby with a salary of $37,1 million and endorsements of .75 million ($750,000 - note the "point")
#93 is cade cunningham with a salary of $28.2 million but endorsements of $10 million
but #92 is Tyrese Maxey with a salary of $35 million but endorsements of only $3.5 million
and #91 is Darius Garland with a salary of $36.5 million and endorsements of only $2 million
i'm not sure why cade makes so much (outside money), compared to the other two (who are in bigger or same sized market as detroit)
tied at #84 are rudy gobert and d'aaron fox (tied in total earnings but fox makes $5 million outside of salary, rudy only 1.5 million)
at #81 is MPJ and #79 is a tie between La`Melo and Domas - total salaries: $122 million/endorsements total: $13 million
at #76 is franz wagner with $39 in salary and $3.5 million in endorsements
that is your bottom ten (out of the thirty nine nba players on the list)
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the list begins with three soccer players (renaldo, messi, ect) and juan soto (mlb)
first nba player (#5 on the list ) is lebron with a salary of $48.7 million and endorsements of 80 million
then curry (#7), durant (#9) and giannis (#13) with total endorsements of $145 million (annually) so THOSE guys are doing fine (even the guy in the "small market")
i hear people saying, "endorsements mean much more than salary" and for SUPERstars, that may be true.
in between 13 (giannis) and 100 (anunoby) are 34 other nba players making vastly different amounts in endorsements (none as extreme as the "top four")
below is just "minutiae"
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between 24 and 32, there are six more nba players (Ant, Embid, Tatum, Butler, Jokic and Booker) - endorsement money drops (Ant is at 20 mil, Tatum at 18 mil and the other four at 9 -11mil (annually)
the next group is at 37-40 (Luka, Shai, Lilliard and Towns) but they ALL make more than the previous set (in endorsements) - 15 mil, 20 mil, 15 mil and only 5 mil (Towns)
between 46 and 55, there are six more players, but only two (Harden, Mitchell) make double figures (in endorsements) - the "low man" is AD (3.5 mil)
there are four more nba players between 60 and 65 (two at 5 mil, two at 10 mil) - Zach is #61 (with 5 mil in endorsements)
there are no more double figure endorsement deals (except, oddly, Cunningham at #93 (10 mil)
Ja and Beal each make 36.5 mil (salary) and 8 mil (endorsements)
some players above Cunningham in the rankings have astonishingly low endorsement deals (Markkanen, Gobert and Siakam are at 1.5 mil - Domas and Garland are at 2 mil)
most of the rest are in the 3.5 - 5 mil range (Fox is at 5 mil)
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interesting (but not "on point") is that brock purdy (#50) makes 9 mil in endorsements, but travis kelsey (#54) makes 32 mil - gee, wonder why THAT is?
more than 1/3 of the players (almost 40%) on this list are from the NBA.
it's interesting to compare two nba superstars in the same market
Tatum (#27) makes 42.4 mil in salary but 18 mil in endorsements
Jaylen Brown (# 49) makes more in salary ($49,2 mil) but only 1.5 mil in endorsements
not sure why the disparity
likewise, Ant (#24) makes 20 mil in endorsements but Gobert (#84) only 1.5 mil
again, same market, big disparity
anyway, an interesting look at endorsements
Now the NBA Commissioner is bowing to online gambling companies? The Adam Silver tenure keeps getting worse and worse.
"Now"
HndsmCelt
Hall of Famer
Guarding the integrity of the game has to be the Paramount goal of every sports organization. Decades of watching professional and college sports has made one thing clear: nothing will kill the game faster than degenerate gamblers.
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iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
teams like the Bulls and Kings and any good basketball market has consistently had great attendance. I’m a Cubs fan and they have sucked for 85 percent of their existence. Fans still support non winning teams. Teams at least not trying to win? Yeh that’s a problem
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
I haven’t been a fan of Adam Silver for some time now. Some of the stuff coming out that is directly or indirectly associated with Silver is troubling. He and the owners are the current keepers of the league. I feel as though they are creating massive damage to the product.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Because 20 million in the grand scheme for especially a star young prospect is, as said, nothing. The reason is because there are so many other avenues to make up the difference and until the Kings can shake their reality as the place where potential goes to die then it would be a wise business decision. The young guys are playing now, but just watch, the first half of this season may have caused some sort of damage. The last time if you recall it involved draft picks not sending medical reports or accepting invites to visit. Hopefully getting the young guys out now will curb some of that damage with agents/players.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Ah, the sacrificial lambs, lol. As soon as they had gambling on pro wrestling and the box scores in bball it was all over. Pro sports have always been a work to some degree but now the curtains are pulled back far enough to see the little dip**** behind them pulling levers.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
After thinking about the tanking thing, the truth is tanking isn't as bad as it seems nor any different than it has been, the real issue is it's happening all at once. You have a few of the forever mediocre teams like the Kings finally throwing their hands up all at the same time and saying "I give". Then there's teams in a true gap year like the Pacers really gaming the system with a roster that knows darn well what it's playing for and what it's doing. It's a dogfight amongst the bad teams and there's a few too many to where it's obvious what's going on. Truth is though, if a player like Domas or LaVine are injured or have been what sense does it make to play them? Domas busting his hump to return for what? What if he tears his other meniscus?
Maybe a way to partially temper things would be to make a certain number of teams ineligible to have a top 4-5 pick or whatever cutoff in consecutive years. That would at least make the pool of true tankers a bit more shallow. The only issue would be they would have to probably strengthen the odds of the worst teams getting one of those picks instead of having teams jumping from 8-10 back as the Kings have done a few times. Either way it would mitigate some of the damage to a select few teams perhaps.
Maybe a way to partially temper things would be to make a certain number of teams ineligible to have a top 4-5 pick or whatever cutoff in consecutive years. That would at least make the pool of true tankers a bit more shallow. The only issue would be they would have to probably strengthen the odds of the worst teams getting one of those picks instead of having teams jumping from 8-10 back as the Kings have done a few times. Either way it would mitigate some of the damage to a select few teams perhaps.
eleventy
G-League
well, if you are one of the VERY TOP prospects, maybe 20 mil doesn't matter.
but what if you are james bouknight (selected #11 in 2021)?
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bouknja01.html
booknight is now in the g-league in mexico - i can't see him getting another nba contract. his total nba earnings (3 years) is about 14 million - could he have afforded to turn down 20 million?
i selected booknight because i recall that prior to selecting davion in 2021, a lot of people were high on booknight (we selected Davion at #9)
but zaire williams is still in the league (selected #10)
he has earned almost 20 million in his first four years and has next year left on his second contract, after which he will have earned about 32 million. he is a rotation player but not a starter, probably has zero chance of any endorsements.
could he have afforded to turn down 20 million (he is a bench player in freakin' brooklyn - no guarantee he gets another contract)
and then there is davion at #9
he's on his third team, but miami gave him a two year deal worth 23 mil. he had earned almost 20 mil in his first four years
no guarantee he succeeds. could HE have afforded to pass on 20 mil?
then we get to franz wagner (#8 in 2021)
he made about 23 mil in his first four years then got a max contract,
now HE is someone who COULD have turned down 20 mil - but how would he KNOW that when drafted?
earlier i provided info (from sportico), which shows clearly that "endorsements" are not the cash cow you think them to be.
yet you continue to say this:
"Because 20 million in the grand scheme for especially a star young prospect is, as said, nothing. The reason is because there are so many other avenues to make up the difference..."
i've shown that only SUPERstars have "other avenues" and my point is, "no matter HOW much faith you have in yourself, when you come into the nba, you have no guarantee that you will ever make enough that 20 million dollars is, as said, "nothing"
The whole argument is about superstars. Nobody is looking at a proposal that would eliminate the draft and make rookies free agents and worrying about whether Sacramento will have future opportunities to sign the next James Bouknight. The point is that Sacramento would have no chance to sign AJ Dybantsa, or Darryn Peterson, or Cam Boozer under that scheme. We're not worried about losing our shot at Davion Mitchell, we're worried about losing any chance at a shot at Victor Wembanyama.
eleventy
G-League
the whole argument (in this case) is whether or not a superstar PROSPECT would turn down 20 million (in a draft/free agent rookie scenario) to avoid signing with a non-desirable team or a team in a non-desirable location. i say, "no - he would not", not on his first nba contract.
(if it is a draft where marvin bagley is the #2 prospect and he turns down 20 million to sign with a team he wants to play for, he just left a lot of money on the table.)
others say, he definitely would pick and choose (on his first nba contract).
one assumes that the salary cap is still in effect and that "better" teams would be able to "offer less money" (in this scenario, 20 million less).
sure nba players want to win and play on "good teams" - but more importantly, they want to get paid (plenty of time to chase rings/locations later in your career).
but since this is a hypothetical, i guess we'll never know.
eleventy
G-League
what?
"(team with worst record has most money, etc.)"
if it is worst record "in that year" and wemby was available, EVERYBODY would tank
mark looks very, uh, "Presidential", doesn't he?
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Effing morons who want to change or eliminate the draft. If it comes to the point where Sac has no chance to get a star, what is the point of following the NBA. The NBA already has an image problem of catering to the big market, notice I said market which is LA, and also an unfair catering to “star” players who are reffed differently.
Adam Silver is going to really make this product worse isn’t he.
Adam Silver is going to really make this product worse isn’t he.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
No argument on players like that, the Kings would have a legit shot to probably sign ones of that level. It'll end up 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other though because they'll likely be relegated to have to select players higher than they should if it were a draft situation and thus pay more just like they tend to on the open market as is.
kingsboi
Hall of Famer
cannot under any circumstance eliminate the draft unless you want a inferior product where there is a good amount of parity at the moment. I'm up for experimenting some things but the trade deadline has basically been free agency part deuce, do we really want to push for part trey?