Kobe Bryant rightly states he and LeBron James are underpaid [Archive] - Message Board Basketball Forum

Threethrows

08-23-2014, 04:06 AM

IT's true, if Kobe/Durant/LeBron were paid market value their salaries would be a lot higher.

Kobe makes you millions in marketing, maybe half his salary back.

The problem is there is a limited budget allocated for the players. It's the cap. Is it fair? Maybe not, but I've had plenty of jobs where I work a lot harder than people I'm working for, and make less money.

Most people would literally murder someone to be in Kobe's financial position. If Kobe feels the life of an owner is that good compared to the poor work horse players why not retire and buy majority stake in a team? Unlike most people who complain about not making enough money that's a realistic option for him.

It's crazy how unaware some of these guys are of what it's like in the real world.

JohnFreeman

08-23-2014, 04:17 AM

Uh... stop lying.

He made 30 million last season. This season he will make 23, the next 25.

That's a huge paycut for one of the most marketable players in the league. Almost 25%.

When, in YOUR life, have you ever taken a 25% paycut?
Yeah, but most people aren't making $20 million +. I don't agree they should take paycuts though.

Mr Feeny

08-23-2014, 04:47 AM

so if kobe took a 20 million dollar pay cut instead... would lebron and melo have come to LA?

No because nobody wants to play with Kobe:applause:

poido123

08-23-2014, 05:29 AM

From a business POV, most definitely.

NZStreetBaller

08-23-2014, 06:22 AM

Millions of dollars to do something that they love 25m 30m 60m who cares shut the F up and play your damn game.

Rose'sACL

08-23-2014, 06:23 AM

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 06:37 AM

No because nobody wants to play with Kobe:applause:

No, it's because the Lakers suck and neither Melo nor Lebron would have came here to be at best a 2nd round exit in the Western Conference.

Mr Feeny

08-23-2014, 08:11 AM

No, it's because the Lakers suck and neither Melo nor Lebron would have came here to be at best a 2nd round exit in the Western Conference.

Err no. There's a reason Dwight left and Lebron and Melo didnt come to LA. The reason is spelt "K-O-B-R-I-C-K"

:lol

UK2K

08-23-2014, 08:19 AM

Millions of dollars to do something that they love 25m 30m 60m who cares shut the F up and play your damn game.
No shit.

Millions would do about anything for 6 weeks of Kobe's salary. I know its a tough life, playing basketball and all, but I guess someone has to do it.

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 08:25 AM

Err no. There's a reason Dwight left and Lebron and Melo didnt come to LA. The reason is spelt "K-O-B-R-I-C-K"

:lol

I'm pretty sure Dwight left because the Lakers sucked outside of Kobe, who went down with a career-threatening injury. Dwight was traded to LA anyways, he didn't exactly go to the Lakers on his own, he wanted to be in Brooklyn. He wasn't going to stay in LA after Kobe had to carry the team the whole season for them to barely make the Playoffs, which was before he tore his achilles and Lakers got swept in the 1st round without him. Dwight also wanted Phil and I believe there was a report that he would have stayed if Phil came. D'Antoni and Dwight did not get along well because D'Antoni does not respect defense.

Melo stayed for his 120+ mil and his family living in NY, LA is so far away..

Lebron wanted to go back home and Kevin Love + Irving is better than anything LA would have had to offer him.

Nowitness

08-23-2014, 08:30 AM

lebrons peak isn't top 10 when you look at who his comp is.

his stats against elite teams, 50+ win teams, aren't even that great. :lol

kobe was a cancer his whole career outside of his earlier years and his peak isn't that great either.

shaq, duncan, dirk, kg were all better players than those two....

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 08:36 AM

Real Men Wear Green

08-23-2014, 08:36 AM

The problem is there is a limited budget allocated for the players. It's the cap. Is it fair? Maybe not, but I've had plenty of jobs where I work a lot harder than people I'm working for, and make less money.

Most people would literally murder someone to be in Kobe's financial position. If Kobe feels the life of an owner is that good compared to the poor work horse players why not retire and buy majority stake in a team? Unlike most people who complain about not making enough money that's a realistic option for him.

It's crazy how unaware some of these guys are of what it's like in the real world.
1: Bryant is most likely foreshadowing the players' position for the next CBA. Similar to James deciding he is no longer going to accept less than the max superstars have to be tired of being pressured to accept less than market value so that the team can build a winner. They're going to want a bigger cap. This isn't about who's right and who's wrong, this is about grabbing the largest share of the pie on both sides.

2: Just because you have settled for what you make doesn't mean that the next man should. This is a capitalist system in which people are paid what they can get someone to pay them. So if the players or anyone else see a way to get paid more why shouldn't they? You, I or the next man is paid has no bearing on what they should try and make for themselves.

3: Bryant has a net worth of 220 million as of 2013. (http://www.ibtimes.com/lebron-james-star-players-net-worth-below-kobe-bryants-kevin-garnetts-due-shorter-career-study-finds) Maybe it's up to 250 million now. Still nowhere near the billionaire status of the normal NBA franchise owner. Highly doubt he could buy a majority stake in an NBA franchise, even a "cheap" one like the Bucks was something like 500 million. Not that this even matters. "If he doesn't like it, he can just buy an NBA team!" is an argument that doesn't make sense and isn't particularly relevant anyway. He's a player, not an owner.

SpanishACB

08-23-2014, 09:02 AM

3: Bryant has a net worth of 220 million as of 2013. (http://www.ibtimes.com/lebron-james-star-players-net-worth-below-kobe-bryants-kevin-garnetts-due-shorter-career-study-finds) Maybe it's up to 250 million now. Still nowhere near the billionaire status of the normal NBA franchise owner. Highly doubt he could buy a majority stake in an NBA franchise, even a "cheap" one like the Bucks was something like 500 million. Not that this even matters. "If he doesn't like it, he can just buy an NBA team!" is an argument that doesn't make sense and isn't particularly relevant anyway. He's a player, not an owner.

In retrospect, players of other sports with similar net worths, made 10-15 millions a year (Messi, Ronaldo) from their club's salary in 2013 (messi has a 180 net worth and Ronaldo has 250)

Being much younger and their marketing deals blowing Kobe's out of proportions, it's only funny when people claim Kobe generates that much. In comparison to? He's the most overpaid athlete as it stands. And for what he actually does in the court, in comparison to other comparable athletes in team sports, even his own, the NBA, it's not like he's heads and shoulders above everyone in the world, and I'm not only talking about this last couple of season, I mean even if we assume he'd be at his peak right now.

Kobe is taking the money, and he doesn't give a ****, it's amusing how people in the internet try to justify it when he's probably laughing, or he would if he read what those people had to say :facepalm

tontoz

08-23-2014, 09:13 AM

Kobe is half right. Lebron is underpaid. But Kobe is waaaaay overpaid.

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 09:23 AM

Kobe is half right. Lebron is underpaid. But Kobe is waaaaay overpaid.

overpaid? Pretty sure the Lakers made 100 million in profit last season(best in the league), and that's with Kobe only playing 6 games and Staples Center not being sold out every game due to the poor product...please.

Lakers are in rebuilding phase and don't have that many solid players. The best player is a post-achilles injury Kobe that played 6 games last season. Even with the cap space we had this off-season, who did we get? Lin in a trade....The so-called "cap space" was wasted on re-signing Hill and Young. Isn't Hill making like 9 mil this season?

Lakers offered Kobe that money before he even came back from injury and it's their own damn fault. stop blaming the player for taking what the team offered him, insuring they have enough cap space to put a decent product on the floor. No big name FA was going to come here anyways so the money Kobe's getting should be irrelevant at this point. You think the extra 10 mil would have made us contenders, that Melo or Lebron would have hopped here? Of course not. That 10 mil might have landed us a solid role player at best.

Real Men Wear Green

08-23-2014, 09:26 AM

Kobe is half right. Lebron is underpaid. But Kobe is waaaaay overpaid.
Bryant is overpaid by the standards of a market that is artificially limited by the cap and max. Eliminate those two things and he may just make more. Look at the deals that get signed by the elite MLB players, guys getting 200+ million contracts. James and Bryant could get that if things were different.

iamgine

08-23-2014, 09:27 AM

Underpaid and overpaid is relative.

Kobe might be overpaid from his impact on the court right now and relative to his peers but he might be underpaid from what his name brings the Lakers now and historically.

So yeah its just a matter of perspective.

MP.Trey

08-23-2014, 09:35 AM

Taking a paycut /= overpaid

Kobe was way overpaid, took a paycut, and now is less overpaid.

tontoz

08-23-2014, 10:05 AM

Bryant is overpaid by the standards of a market that is artificially limited by the cap and max. Eliminate those two things and he may just make more. Look at the deals that get signed by the elite MLB players, guys getting 200+ million contracts. James and Bryant could get that if things were different.

The fact that Kobe is overpaid has nothing to do with the cap. It has to do with the fact that he is 36 years old and recovering from a major injury, something old guys typically struggle with.

If Kobe was 30 and healthy then you could say he is underpaid. Lebron and Kobe are not even remotely comparable in regards to their value.

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 10:14 AM

The fact that Kobe is overpaid has nothing to do with the cap. It has to do with the fact that he is 36 years old and recovering from a major injury, something old guys typically struggle with.

If Kobe was 30 and healthy then you could say he is underpaid. Lebron and Kobe are not even remotely comparable in regards to their value.

Kobe getting paid 24 mil on the Lakers is not the same as it is in the open market.... Kobe obviously gets more because he was a big part of 5 rings and has been a Laker his whole life, plus the fact that the team is currently not that great and we don't have any big star coming our way. They threw the money at him because they could and it doesn't affect them. Jordan Hill just got 9 mil a year deal, Nick Young 5 mil...Lin's making 8...That's what we spent our cap on. Other option would have been to let everyone go and sign someone like Stephenson, Parsons, Thomas or Hayward to a near max deal... Kobe's not gonna accept 12 mil a year and be medicore when he could accept 24 mil and be around the same. If the Lakers needed Kobe to take a huge cut in order to contend for championships, he would have done that.

Kobe is worth the money because the Lakers are raking in over a 100 mil a year in profits. 24 mil is nothing to them.

Mr Feeny

08-23-2014, 10:17 AM

Kobe getting paid 24 mil on the Lakers is not the same as it is in the open market.... Kobe obviously gets more because he was a big part of 5 rings and has been a Laker his whole life, plus the fact that the team is currently not that great and we don't have any big star coming our way. They threw the money at him because they could and it doesn't affect them. Jordan Hill just got 9 mil a year deal, Nick Young 5 mil...Lin's making 8...That's what we spent our cap on. Other option would have been to let everyone go and sign someone like Stephenson, Parsons, Thomas or Hayward to a near max deal... Kobe's not gonna accept 12 mil a year and be medicore when he could accept 24 mil and be around the same. If the Lakers needed Kobe to take a huge cut in order to contend for championships, he would have done that.

Kobe is worth the money because the Lakers are raking in over a 100 mil a year in profits. 24 mil is nothing to them.

They Lakers DO need Kobe to take a paycut in order to contend. Unfortunately, his priority is making as much money as possible rather than about winning.

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 10:24 AM

They Lakers DO need Kobe to take a paycut in order to contend. Unfortunately, his priority is making as much money as possible rather than about winning.

What do the Lakers get that puts them from missing the Playoffs to contending for a championship with an extra 10 mil? Kobe is not in his prime to carry these guys every single night without injuring himself... We have Nash taking up 9 mil and we might see him play 5-10 games this year. Lakers threw 14 million at Jordan Hill and Nick Young, one is a great role player that gets injured often, other is a chucker that can't rebound, pass, or defend on a consistent basis.

At best, the extra 10 mil adds us a few wins by signing someone like Isaiah Thomas. But it doesn't put us anywhere near the top of the conference. And what we're seeing right now is Lakers not committing to anyone on a long-term basis, no one is signed past the 2015-16 season, except for Nick Young (player option in 2017) and Randle(team option in 2016), who's on the rookie deal. They are obviously not being desperate and trying to "contend" because Mitch knows that signing an all-star caliber player to a long term, 15+ mil/yr team kills any hopes for contention in the near future. A 36-year-old Kobe is by far the best player on the roster. I guess I should take that as a compliment, that Lebron fans think a 36-yr old Kobe is capable of leading a team to a title.

tontoz

08-23-2014, 10:47 AM

Kobe getting paid 24 mil on the Lakers is not the same as it is in the open market.... Kobe obviously gets more because he was a big part of 5 rings and has been a Laker his whole life, plus the fact that the team is currently not that great and we don't have any big star coming our way. .

LA is at least 2nd in terms of most attractive markets for free agents. They have a huge market, great location and a storied history. It isn't like we are talking about the Hawks here.

Kobe is not an asset in terms of attracting free agents. He is a liability.

Getting paid for past accomplishments makes no sense. He already got paid for those years. It isnt like he was playing for free.

A smart GM signs a player based on what he believes the player will accomplish during the life of the contract. Signing based on past accomplishments is what led to the Gilbert Arenas deal.

ralph_i_el

08-23-2014, 12:26 PM

Took a pay cut :facepalm

Highest paid cripple in the NBA

Inb4 20/3/3 on 40% with 3 TOpg

Real Men Wear Green

08-23-2014, 01:03 PM

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 01:05 PM

A player's value to a franchise isn't just on the court, it's also about how much they can make off of having him on their team. Kobe Bryant gets the Lakers on national TV, puts fans in seats and attracts sponsors. There's a lot of value in that.

This guy gets it.

Tking714

08-23-2014, 03:34 PM

i don't hate any player who wants to make as much money as possible.
that said, kobe didn't take a paycut. taking a paycut means that you were sure that you could have had more money money elsewhere. no playoff bound team was going to pay kobe close to what lakers were offering him.
anyone who thinks that kobe took a paycut is an idiot.

The bobcats, the mavericks, the raptors, the nets, and the Hawks would all pay Kobe. Even teams on the outside looking in like the Bucks or the Suns would pay Kobe. Just for ticket and Jersey sales alone

ImKobe

08-23-2014, 03:38 PM

The bobcats, the mavericks, the raptors, the nets, and the Hawks would all pay Kobe. Even teams on the outside looking in like the Bucks or the Suns would pay Kobe. Just for ticket and Jersey sales alone

If Kobe said he was out and was looking for another team, I bet Philly would have thrown the max at him.

SpanishACB

08-24-2014, 04:39 AM

overpaid? Pretty sure the Lakers made 100 million in profit last season(best in the league)

yes, but this is because plenty of sponsor deals are signed long term

if those end, most important one being TV, nationally and internationally, and the Lakers are still sucking balls, they're not getting it anymore.

ImKobe

08-24-2014, 04:46 AM

yes, but this is because plenty of sponsor deals are signed long term

if those end, most important one being TV, nationally and internationally, and the Lakers are still sucking balls, they're not getting it anymore.

That's long after Kobe's retired, which does not matter in this case. Kobe played a big part in the Lakers sucess in the last 15 years, which helped them land a TV deal worth 3.6 Billion over the next 20 years. That's 180 million off the TV deal a year with Kobe there, TWC will be at least running until Kobe's there, imagine the product they would have to put out if Kobe retired and we had a D-league squad with no entertaining aspects? TWC would probably try to get out of the deal with a declining viewership.

Rose'sACL

08-24-2014, 04:59 AM

If Kobe said he was out and was looking for another team, I bet Philly would have thrown the max at him.
and? my comment clearly says playoff team. teams which have no hope of going deep in the playoffs will pay for him but he wouldn't do that because it is better to be on a non-playoff team in LA than a non-playoff team in philly.
Also, unlike lebron on cavs, kobe and lakers have both benefited from each other equally.
kobe would be 70-80% as famous as he is right now on a small market team like the cavs. kobe would impact ticket sales very little if he left lakers and lakers got love or carmelo. if kobe doesn't play many games this year, his contract would be too much for the lakers even considering his jersey sales. they paid him so much because they knew they would piss all the bandwagon lakers fans if they didn't.
bulls and celtics have more diehard fans than lakers even with nfl teams there.

ImKobe

08-24-2014, 05:07 AM

and? my comment clearly says playoff team. teams which have no hope of going deep in the playoffs will pay for him but he wouldn't do that because it is better to be on a non-playoff team in LA than a non-playoff team in philly.
Also, unlike lebron on cavs, kobe and lakers have both benefited from each other equally.
kobe would be 70-80% as famous as he is right now on a small market team like the cavs.

2015-16 Philly with Kobe, healthy Embiid and Noel, MCW is a Conference Finals contender in the East.

Kobe might actually be more famous than he currently is if he was drafted to the Cavs and played in the Eastern Conference all his career. 96-97 Cavs won 42 games alone, put Kobe on it and give him the green light and they make the Playoffs and keep improving as Kobe gets better. They added Kemp to their roster in 98, 98 Kobe + Kemp + Big Z would have won 50+ games and advanced the first round (they won 47 games that year, Kobe adds at least 5).

And hypothetical discussions are bullshit anyways, no one knows how it would have been or how the scenarios would have played out, it's stupid to argue over it and act like you're right. You might be :confusedshrug:, chances are we are both wrong :confusedshrug:.

People have downplayed Kobe all his career for playing in LA, imagine if he still wins rings and has more deeper Playoff runs as a 1st option on a small market team, he would be loved so much more on these forums than he currently is.

Rose'sACL

08-24-2014, 05:20 AM

2015-16 Philly with Kobe, healthy Embiid and Noel, MCW is a Conference Finals contender in the East.

Kobe might actually be more famous than he currently is if he was drafted to the Cavs and played in the Eastern Conference all his career. 96-97 Cavs won 42 games alone, put Kobe on it and give him the green light and they make the Playoffs and keep improving as Kobe gets better. They added Kemp to their roster in 98, 98 Kobe + Kemp + Big Z would have won 50+ games and advanced the first round (they won 47 games that year, Kobe adds at least 5).

And hypothetical discussions are bullshit anyways, no one knows how it would have been or how the scenarios would have played out, it's stupid to argue over it and act like you're right. You might be :confusedshrug:, chances are we are both wrong :confusedshrug:.

People have downplayed Kobe all his career for playing in LA, imagine if he still wins rings and has more deeper Playoff runs as a 1st option on a small market team, he would be loved so much more on these forums than he currently is.
kobe doesn't have a great record against eastern teams. stop posting bs.

ImKobe

08-24-2014, 05:21 AM

kobe doesn't have a great record against eastern teams. stop posting bs.

He's 5 - 2 against the Eastern Conference in the playoffs. (71%)

ImKobe

08-24-2014, 05:30 AM

He's 5 - 2 against the Eastern Conference in the playoffs. (71%)

Plus, in his prime (06), he averaged 36/5/5 against the Eastern Conference on 57%TS, DRTG & ORTG all better than against the West.

Rose'sACL

08-24-2014, 05:33 AM

He's 5 - 2 against the Eastern Conference in the playoffs. (71%)
now post his numbers.
he should thank shaq that his 2004 performance in the finals is not discussed as much as lebron's 2011 finals performance becauseit was as bad as lebron's 2011 finals.
everyone also conveniently forgets his trade demand on national radio.Just imagine kobe drafted on a shit franchise with shitty teams for at least a few years. he would kill the GM unless he was traded.
lebron still stayed there for 7 yrs.