A Guide to Signing Players for Less
Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:19 pm
It's frequently said in here, "maybe he'll sign for less money", "it makes sense because he has a great chance to win a championship here", etc.
There are only a small handful of reasons that an NBA player would sign with a team for less money than he seems capable of getting (in order of likelihood):
- To win a championship
- Family reasons
- He thinks that the team offering more money is going to under- or badly utilize him, hurting his future earning power
- He likes living in a certain city and doesn't want to waste any more time travelling in order to live there than necessary (bad career move for several reasons)
- He really likes being on the team with a certain player/coach/other ("strange" and dumb career move, although it may be more fun while he's there)
- He doesn't like something about one of the teams that's offering him more money
- In spite of fan and media opinion, actual GMs realize that he is not worth what he is asking and/or his contract is full of clauses he knows he can't meet
- The team offering the money is the Clippers or Atlanta (because with New York, at least you're in New York, although you won't be able to go anywhere in peace if you play bad)
- Can anyone think of anything else? I can't.
The typical reason on this board that someone "is going to come sign with us for less money" is "to win a championship." So now, for those of you stating this, I have a question:
Did you, or are you, going to college?
If the answer is yes, my next question is:
Upon graduating with a grade/degree/contacts/etc combination that places you in the top 0.1% of college grads in the nation, would you be satisfied with working at Burger King for 4 years with dreams of winning a top employee certificate? (I ask "Burger King" because it's nigh guaranteed to earn you less per year than any sort of job you can get with any college degree from any college. The absolute and relative money differences don't match, but the concept is similar enough.) Granted, money isn't everything - a terrible work environment is a terrible work environment, but the higher the money goes, GENERALLY the more people are willing to overlook so long as it doesn't come back to haunt them in the future.
A similar question still applies to non-colleged peoples, why would YOU take a lower paying job? Be objective. What is a championship? It's a trophy that sticks with the franchise. You get a ring and probably some glory and attention (that will wane more and more as the years go by), but very little else that's going to help you out in the future unless you were famous and charismatic enough to swing some endorsement deals. So if you're a forward-thinking person, why do it?
(Yes, this was prompted by the people who think Arenas wants to come sign with us and hundreds of other silly trade ideas. Granted, he is on par mentally with Chris Wallace, but still...)
There are only a small handful of reasons that an NBA player would sign with a team for less money than he seems capable of getting (in order of likelihood):
- To win a championship
- Family reasons
- He thinks that the team offering more money is going to under- or badly utilize him, hurting his future earning power
- He likes living in a certain city and doesn't want to waste any more time travelling in order to live there than necessary (bad career move for several reasons)
- He really likes being on the team with a certain player/coach/other ("strange" and dumb career move, although it may be more fun while he's there)
- He doesn't like something about one of the teams that's offering him more money
- In spite of fan and media opinion, actual GMs realize that he is not worth what he is asking and/or his contract is full of clauses he knows he can't meet
- The team offering the money is the Clippers or Atlanta (because with New York, at least you're in New York, although you won't be able to go anywhere in peace if you play bad)
- Can anyone think of anything else? I can't.
The typical reason on this board that someone "is going to come sign with us for less money" is "to win a championship." So now, for those of you stating this, I have a question:
Did you, or are you, going to college?
If the answer is yes, my next question is:
Upon graduating with a grade/degree/contacts/etc combination that places you in the top 0.1% of college grads in the nation, would you be satisfied with working at Burger King for 4 years with dreams of winning a top employee certificate? (I ask "Burger King" because it's nigh guaranteed to earn you less per year than any sort of job you can get with any college degree from any college. The absolute and relative money differences don't match, but the concept is similar enough.) Granted, money isn't everything - a terrible work environment is a terrible work environment, but the higher the money goes, GENERALLY the more people are willing to overlook so long as it doesn't come back to haunt them in the future.
A similar question still applies to non-colleged peoples, why would YOU take a lower paying job? Be objective. What is a championship? It's a trophy that sticks with the franchise. You get a ring and probably some glory and attention (that will wane more and more as the years go by), but very little else that's going to help you out in the future unless you were famous and charismatic enough to swing some endorsement deals. So if you're a forward-thinking person, why do it?
(Yes, this was prompted by the people who think Arenas wants to come sign with us and hundreds of other silly trade ideas. Granted, he is on par mentally with Chris Wallace, but still...)