Isiah Signs All Other Teams to 1 Year, $1.8 Million Contract; Then Cuts Them All
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by DNL
Yes, the title is a bit misleading. The Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and, amazingly, the Minnesota Timberwolves won't be getting a check from the best GM in NBA history.
But the 25 other teams -- that is, other than those four and the $45,142,002 million over the cap team known as the New York Knicks -- they will be.
The NBA salary cap punishes teams which are over the cap by restricting their trade abilities and by taxing them one dollar for every dollar the team is over the cap. The Mavs, who held the league's best regular season record and lay claim to MVP (snicker) Dirk Nowitzki, were about $7.2 million over the cap. The AI/Carmelo Anthony Show shattered the approximately $65m ceiling by $2m. The T-Wolves broke it by just under $1m, and the Spurs? About $200k.
So, yeah, the Knicks are... unique.
The 4.5 billion pennies Isiah and the Ghost of Scott Layden are paying goes directly to the 25 team not over the cap. That comes out to $1,805,680.08 per team. To put it another way:
- Grant Hill (2007-08 salary: $1.8m) will be playing for the Phoenix Suns, on Isiah's 18 million dimes;
- The Portland Trail Blazers' three non-Greg Oden draft picks are all in the Pacific Northwest, courtesy of James Dolan and MSG;
- Daniel Gibson, the "other" star of the Cleveland Cavaliers' playoff run? He's being paid by Thomas, too -- with about $1.15m left over
Seriously, though, the abortion known as the Knicks are unique for another reason: At $45m over the cap, they're effectively paying $155m. The Mavs, at $7m over, are paying about $80m. In other words? The Knicks managed to pay almost twice as much as Dallas... and not without that whole "best regular-season record" thing getting in the way.
| This user is a New York Knicks fan. |
