I can’t even believe that I’m writing this. I remember watching them both play in college. Kapono was nice enough, and he was a star as a freshman. He was quite the sensation actually. But then his entire career went downhill after Steve Lavin took over as coach. He was immediately forgotten, drafted by the Cavs in relative obscurity, and left to rot away on the Cleveland bench. He even got off one of the greatest quotes in the history of the draft, saying he should have moved to Europe, grown a beard, and changed his name to Kaponovich. Then last year he gets revived with D-Wade hurt, and he becomes a scoring option. Next thing you know, he’s leading the NBA in 3pt percentage. And now, he’ll be getting paid $20 million for his talent. Amazing. Not that bad given current NBA salaries, but still absurd when you think about it. Good for Jason (and Ashley!).
Then there’s Luke Walton. Who as a freshman did not belong on the University of Arizona team. He was painfully slow on the court, unable to pick up the pace of the Pac-10 game. He had no business being on the floor with the likes of teammate Gilbert Arenas. But he eventually grew, developed, became a pretty good passer, and all-around good teammate. Now, years later, those talents are worth $30 million. That too, is an absurd amount of money.
I would like you to take a step back at this point and think about the amounts of money these two men are set to make. Then, think about what you do for a living and how hard you work at it. And think about how much you make. Then think about $24 and $30 million contracts. Yeah, makes you feel pretty crappy huh. All for Jason Kapono and Luke Walton. That is insane.
Related posts
More Hot Stories at larrybrownsports.com
This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 and is filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Wow, that’s the contracts you’re complaining about?
Maybe you need a refresher on NBA money, here goes.
Salary Cap should hit 50M this year-10 players=5M/player
Avg Players get the Mid-level exception which is 6M/yr and these guys are making less than that.
How bout whining KG making as much per YEAR.
The writer here is as insightful and intelligent as Larry Brown, so the name fits perfectly.
My email address is actually inspired by Kapono, and as a UCLA fan I’ve always rooted for him… glad to see him getting paid, even though I’m not exactly sure he deserves that much.