LeBron James may be arguably the best player in the NBA today, but he is not the highest paid. In fact, he’s not even in the top 10 this season. LeBron will make $17.5 million this season, which is tied for 13th in the league and more than $10 million less than the $27.8 million Kobe Bryant will make.
LeBron took less money to go to the Miami Heat for a chance to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. For that, he wants more recognition.
I have not had a full max deal yet in my career — that’s a story untold,” James said Friday according to ESPN.com. “I don’t get (the credit) for it. That doesn’t matter to me; playing the game is what matters to me. Financially, I’ll sacrifice for the team. It shows for some of the top guys, it isn’t all about money. That’s the genuine side of this, it’s about winning. I understand that.”
If it’s not all about the money, it shouldn’t be about getting credit, either. LeBron says he simply wants to win, so the amount of recognition he receives for sacrificing a few million dollars shouldn’t matter to him. In addition to pointing out that he has never signed a max contract, LeBron also noted that he could never be fairly compensated anyway because of the collective bargaining agreement.
“What I do on the floor shows my value,” he said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think my value on the floor can really be compensated for, anyways, because of the (collective bargaining agreement). If you want the truth. If this was baseball, it’d be up, I mean way up there.”
That may be true, but this isn’t baseball. Nobody wants to hear millionaires complaining about how they could and should be making more millions. By now, LeBron should know that. Then again, this isn’t the first time he’s made comments in hopes of getting more credit.
Photo credit: David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE
