Vasa Micic Highest Paid EuroLeague Player: around €16.65M for all three years of the contract

[Mirotic12]

The only way EL will ever get close to NBA money is if they make it a closed League where every team is guaranteed their spot next year and they don't participate in other national leagues. That's the only way investors will feel secure enough to drop a billion on a basketball team in Serbia or Lithuania, and they're a long way away from that.

EuroLeague can't do that. They want to, but they are not allowed to. FIBA won't allow it, and have made it extremely clear that they will have severe action against them if they try it. It's just like FIFA with the European Super League issue.

Unfortunately, EuroLeague is totally bound by the politics of FIBA. A few years ago EuroLeague's board approved changing the court to size to NBA dimensions, and to moving the 3 point line to NBA depth. FIBA immediately blocked it and said they were not allowed to do that.

[holdenwait]

nba swooped in for every meh fenerbahce player but euroleague mvp is not getting snapped up? highly annoying lol

[Mirotic12]

Bulls wanted him hard as well, but oh well, Spanoulis' shadow lives on, that guy was very influential in Europe among these players, and sadly he put NBA fear into a lot of these guys.

Vassilis Spanoulis and Vasa Micic have the same agent. And their agent has said before on numerous occasions that he would never let another of his biggest EuroLeague clients to go the NBA and have his career destroyed by a coach benching him without any justification or reason.

Because of what happened to Spanoulis in the NBA, Micic's agent will never let one of his big EuroLeague players go to any NBA team that doesn't guarantee him a major role in the team.

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I remember seeing a couple of interviews where Sergio Llull said he was worried about signing with the Rockets, because of how they treated Spanoulis. He said something to the effect of (paraphrasing), Spanoulis is the best player in Europe and the Rockets wouldn't let him play when he went there, so because of that he had to be very careful about considering any offers or promises they made to him.

Whether NBA management and coaches realize it or not, how they treat European players is something that players in Europe pay attention to and remember. And it does have potential consequences.

[UcanUwill]

Bulls wanted him hard as well, but oh well, Spanoulis' shadow lives on, that guy was very influential in Europe among these players, and sadly he put NBA fear into a lot of these guys.

Spanoulis and Micic have the same agent. And their agent has vowed before that he would never let another of his biggest EuroLeague clients to go the NBA and have his career destroyed by a coach benching him without any justification or reason.

Because of what happened to Spanoulis in the NBA, Micic's agent will never let one of his big EuroLeague players go to any NBA team that doesn't guarantee him a major role in the team.

Read on Twitter

As a huge ''facts'' fan, maybe recheck Spanoulis NBA stats if you believe there was no justification why he was benched. Would Spanoulis have figured out NBA if he actually tried, yes, maybe, but in his first stint he was garbage. Some of the biggest stars in the NBA had tough times as rookies, but they earned it, Spanoulis not only sucked but he acted like he is entitled to star role without proving jack. Its really sad such character tainted other talented players' minds. He got in Europe by talent alone, but in tougher league the moment it got tough for him - he quit, facts here for you

[Mirotic12]

Everyone that has anything to do with basketball in Europe knows Vassilis Spanoulis' NBA career was sabotaged. If you think John Lucas III and Luther Head that played instead of him, were better players than Spanoulis, then you have the lowest basketball IQ and knowledge imaginable. Over the years, there were interviews where Shane Battier, Yao Ming, and Bonzi Wells, who were teammates of Spanoulis on the Rockets, all said he should have been the team's starting point guard, but that he had personal issues with the coach.

Drazen Petrovic wasn't good enough for the NBA according to Rick Adelman, so yeah, NBA coaches are obviously 100% innocent when it comes to being fair with European players. Keep believing your alternate facts though.

[UcanUwill]

As a huge ''facts'' fan, maybe recheck Spanoulis NBA stats if you believe there was no justification why he was benched. Would Spanoulis have figured out NBA if he actually tried, yes, maybe, but in his first stint he was garbage. Some of the biggest stars in the NBA had tough times as rookies, but they earned it, Spanoulis not only sucked but he acted like he is entitled to star role without proving jack. Its really sad such character tainted other talented players' minds. He got in Europe by talent alone, but in tougher league the moment it got tough for him - he quit, facts here for you

Everyone that ahs anything to do with basketball in Europe knows Spanoulis' NBA career was sabotaged. If you think John Lucas III and Luther Head that played instead of him, were better players than Spanoulis, then you have the lowest basketball IQ knowledge imaginable. Over the years, there were interviews where Shane Battier, Yao Ming, and Bonzi Wells, who were teammates of Spanoulis on the Rockets, all said he should have been the team's styarting point guard, but that he had personal issues with the coach.

Drazen Petrovic wasn't good enough for the NBA according to Rick Adelman, so yeah NBA coaches are obviously 100% innocent when it comes to being fair with European players. Keep believing your alternate facts though.

Spanoulis was rookie who arrived on a winning team, so what he was benched, a lot of coaches dont trust rookies, for justifiable reasons or not, that doesn't mean that the only way out is quit instantly and for years whine how you were sabotaged. Spanoulis' decidion was weak, period. He had talent to be OK NBA player, but he will be remembered as NBA wash out and thats purely his own fault.

ANd dont even compare Spanoulis to Petrovic, Petrovic is far more talented player and guess what, he didnt quit and proved it, he had tough times just like Spanoulis at first, but at the end he was going toe to toe with MJ at times.

[Mirotic12]

Spanoulis not only sucked but he acted like he is entitled to star role without proving jack. Its really sad such character tainted other talented players' minds. He got in Europe by talent alone, but in tougher league the moment it got tough for him - he quit, facts here for you

Spanoulis never sabotaged any European player's mind about going to play in the NBA. I remember an interview with Kostas Papanikolaou, Spanoulis' teammate in Greek NT and Olympiacos, and his close friend. Papanikolaou had a contract offer from the Houston Rockets. He said (paraphrasing) in an interview I remember, that he asked Spanoulis for his advice on going to the Rockets, after how they treated him. And he said that Spanoulis told him it was just because the coach at the time had a personal issue against him. Otherwise he would have played and everything was great in how the personal training went. That Spanoulis told him he should go to the NBA and sign with the Rockets and that he would regret it if he didn't try the NBA. That Spanoulis wanted to play with the Spurs after they asked him to stay with them after they traded for him. But that he just couldn't stay in the NBA at that time because he was very mad and upset about how he had been handled by the Rockets coach and he just had to get away from the NBA because of it.

He didn't taint any European player's views on the NBA. He was honest about it and told Papanikolaou to go to the Rockets, since they had fired the coach that was refusing to give him a chance. And in case you were unaware, the Rockets coach that benched Spanoulis without any reason or justification, Jeff Van Gundy, was fired by the Rockets right after the season ended. And he never got another coaching job in the NBA again. Seems a little bit odd, if everything he was doing as a coach was kosher. Even in the NBA, where they recycle then same coaches over and over again, even his own brother Stan, he never got another coaching job.

ANd dont even compare Spanoulis to Petrovic, Petrovic is far more talented player and guess what, he didnt quit and proved it, he had tough times just like Spanoulis at first, but at the end he was going toe to toe with MJ at times.

Drazen Petrovic wasn't good enough for the NBA, according to hall of fame American basketball coach Rick Adelman, who coached Petrovic on the Blazers.

Petrovic was averaging 7 minutes a game with the Blazers, with Adelman as his coach. Seven minutes a game. That's what he thought Petrovic was, a 7 minute a game player. Just in case you didn't know, Rick Adelman was the coach of the Rockets when they traded Spanoulis to the Spurs.

Keep believing your alternate facts though.

[UcanUwill]

And Drazen didnt quit and went back to Madrid so he would be a star, he had drive to prove himself against best players in the world at a time, and he did. Spanoulis never did that, and its not alternate fact, it is a fact, it is you who lives in alternate reality where Spanoulis is some kind of NBA star, which hes not, he had potential to be older mature Kyle Lowry type player, decent player on a winning team with high IQ, but thats all just a speculation now, he was best Euroleague player of past decade and thats great achievement, but that doesnt make him all time great.

[WargamesX]

This has probably been said but doesn’t the team pay the taxes of salary in Europe, so that deal would actually have the equivalent worth of around 25-30 million in a NBA contract.

[UcanUwill]

This has probably been said but doesn’t the team pay the taxes of salary in Europe, so that deal would actually have the equivalent worth of around 25-30 million in a NBA contract.

I think this number taken that into account already. I myself find this report hard to believe, I mean 16 mil a year already seems very unrealistic sum in European basketball, but they had to bid against NBA team, so maybe its true, but no way hes making NBA equvalent of more than what is in the title.

[Mirotic12]

This has probably been said but doesn’t the team pay the taxes of salary in Europe, so that deal would actually have the equivalent worth of around 25-30 million in a NBA contract.

Yes, the teams pay the taxes. The salaries are listed as the net income amount. The agents have a way of converting it to NBA gross salaries, considering agent fees, union fees, retirement funds, federal and state taxes, and such being deducted. It's the net salary in Europe times 2.225.

So it would be like $44.1 million in the NBA. $14.7 million in NBA terms per season, or $44.1 million in NBA terms over 3 years.

So basically, to put it into NBA terms, a 3 year $44.1 million contract.

[WargamesX]

This has probably been said but doesn’t the team pay the taxes of salary in Europe, so that deal would actually have the equivalent worth of around 25-30 million in a NBA contract.

Yes, the teams pay the taxes. The salaries are listed as the net income amount. The agents have a way of converting it to NBA gross salaries, considering agent fees, union fees, retirement funds, federal and state taxes, and such being deducted. It's the net salary in Europe times 2.225.

So it would be like $44.1 million in the NBA. $14.7 million in NBA terms per season, or $44.1 million in NBA terms over 3 years.

So basically, to put it into NBA terms, a 3 year $44.1 million contract.

That’s a solid nba contract.

[Sactowndog]

Yeah at some point the euros gonna start taking top end European talent from nba...or maybe some good middle of The pack American guys

I don't think the EuroLeague teams are interested in that anymore. They have already signed many such players from the NBA, and all of them were big busts, considering their contracts. None of the EuroLeague teams that signed such players ever won anything either.

If players dont want to play in Canada because they consider it too far, they're definitely not leaving to Europe.

I think as the game continues to grow in Europe and Africa the European game will continue to grow and the Euroleague will improve. Consider how many leagues soccer supports. It would be foolish to assume basketball can only support 1.

It would also be foolish to assume major pro sports conglomerates like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Olympiacos and Bayern Munich won’t grow their league. I think the next step is for European Soccer clubs in bigger markets like Juventus, AS Roma, Paris St Germaine, Chelsea, Manchester to purchase or move teams in a basketball super league. It will be interesting to see how the failure of the soccer super league impacts this growth. Had it survived a basketball super league would have been next.

[GYK]

So the MLE? I don’t see how you think they could get top end or middle of the pack NBA stars on the MLE.

https://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles/values_of_2020_21_mid_level_bi_annual_exceptions/s1_14822_33288221

Mid-Level Exception (Non-Taxpayer):

2021-22 $9,720,900
2022-23 $10,183,800
2023-24 $10,646,700

The non-taxpayer mid-level exception is the primary tool available for over-the-cap teams to add free agents. As long as a team hasn’t dipped below the cap to use cap space and doesn’t go over the tax apron ($138,928,000) at all, it can use this MLE, which runs for up to four years with 5% annual raises.

Mid-Level Exception (Taxpayer):

2021-22 $6,003,900
2022-23 $6,289,800

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Micic's salary of nearly $15 million gross is much higher than the NBA's MLE is.

The numbers are most likely gross, not net, then it makes more sense.

Given the budgets Euroleague teams have and the fact that they mostly lose money on the season, it's extremely unlikely anyone has such a big salary, as it would represent like 20-30% of the total budget. And I mean budget as a whole, not just payroll.

EuroLeague clubs have much bigger total budgets than that on average. Panathinaikos, Olympiacos and Maccabi are considered to have mid-sized budgets for EuroLeague, and if we are talking about "total budgets", they have total budgets of around €25 million euros a season. That's considered a mid-level total budget, or maybe even a smallish total budget. It's probably not even in the upper half of the EuroLeague budgets.

The budget isn't the amount of money that a team is capable of spending. It's simply the amount the ownership decides to spend at any given time. For example, CSKA's budget often fluctuates noticeably from year to year, based on what the owners want to spend. It even sometimes fluctuates considerably within a given season. Like in 2015, when they signed Kirilenko for $5 million US net income, after the season had already started and their budget was already set and that salary wouldn't even show up on the reported budget.

Anadolu Efes Basketball Club is owned by the Anadolu Efes Group, a large beer and retail company in Europe. The ownership has plenty of money to spend on players any time they want to. If they wanted to spend $20 million a season on a player they could do it.

https://www.the-top-twenty.com/the-top-20-biggest-brewery-companies-in-the-world/

Biggest Breweries in the World

12. Efes Group (Turkey) – 2,110 million liters per year

Anadolu Efes Biracılık ve Malt Sanayii A.Ş. produces and markets beer and malt and non-alcoholic beverages in a wide geographical area comprising Turkey, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. Anadolu Efes is a member of the Anadolu Group. Anadolu Group was founded in the early 1950s by the Özilhan and Yazıcı families.

If you convert it to NBA money. But that’s not a thing. It’s not it’s own denomination. It’s like 6 million dollars a year. So MLE money. If it’s 16 it’s 16 but if it’s 6 it’s 6.

[Mirotic12]

If you convert it to NBA money. But that’s not a thing. It’s not it’s own denomination. It’s like 6 million dollars a year. So MLE money. If it’s 16 it’s 16 but if it’s 6 it’s 6.

NBA contract amounts are reported in gross terms. European contracts are reported in net terms. It's really not a difficult concept to comprehend. It's not even in the slightest bit difficult to grasp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_income

For households and individuals, net income refers to the (gross) income minus taxes and other deductions (e.g. mandatory pension contributions).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_income

For households and individuals, gross income is the sum of all wages, salaries, profits, interest payments, rents, and other forms of earnings, before any deductions or taxes. It is opposed to net income, defined as the gross income minus taxes and other deductions (e.g., mandatory pension contributions).

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Isn't this something you learn in like junior high school?

[GYK]

This whole narrative is just completely false. Idk why the agenda needs to pushed but there’s no base in reality. He’s got a multi year contract for 16 or so. The highest ever contract was 20 for 3 seasons. The highest team payroll is 47 with 35 going to the players. Even with taxes covered the reported net is pretty much the gross.
https://europrobasket.com/overseas-basketball-salaries/

[Mirotic12]

This whole narrative is just completely false. Idk why the agenda needs to pushed but there’s no base in reality. He’s got a multi year contract for 16 or so. The highest ever contract was 20 for 3 seasons. The highest team payroll is 47 with 35 going to the players. Even with taxes covered the reported net is pretty much the gross.
https://europrobasket.com/overseas-basketball-salaries/

Have you never had a job? Anyone in the world that has ever had a job should be able to understand the very clear difference between gross and net income.

[GYK]

This whole narrative is just completely false. Idk why the agenda needs to pushed but there’s no base in reality. He’s got a multi year contract for 16 or so. The highest ever contract was 20 for 3 seasons. The highest team payroll is 47 with 35 going to the players. Even with taxes covered the reported net is pretty much the gross.
https://europrobasket.com/overseas-basketball-salaries/

Have you never had a job? Anyone in the world that has ever had a job should be able to understand the very clear difference between gross and net income.

The article is pretty clear.
Your agenda is constant throughout the years.
You’re disingenuous.
But good for you. You really believe in the Euroleague and want it be bigger.
Read the article it’s pretty long so I know you didn’t. It’s all laid by euro hoops. Euroleague official page has the same info.

[GYK]

Euroleague – Highest and Lowest Budgets

The max Euroleague budget for the 2018/19 season was Spanish giant Real Madrid with an overall budget of $47 million USD with $35 million USD going to players’ salaries.

The lowest was Montenegrin club Budućnost VOLI with an overall salary of 6.5 million USD and 4 million USD going to the players’ payments.

The average Euroleague salary budget was 14 millionUSD. With such a large variance in budgets as well as a lack of exact budget and salary numbers it’s not possible to give a definite number.

However, you could expect a Euroleague import player to receive anywhere from 500k-800k USD per season with a max of $4 millionUSD.

Import players will be receiving all of their basketball salaries as the teams take care of paying the income taxes. Although, the player may have to pay taxes in their country of permanent residence.

Highest Paid Basketball Players in Europe

There are some very well paid players in Europe currently but none other than Nikola Mirotic which is reportedly making around $4,000,000 US dollars making him the highest paid basketball player in Europe.

Some reports mention that Nikola Mirotic is getting paid $5,400,000 to $4,400,000 per season, but as per Eurohoops.com, a more realistic number with taxes included is in the $3.8 million to $4 million range.

Nikola Mirotic is playing for FC Barcelona which competes both in the Euroleague and the Spanish Liga Acb or Liga Endesa.

Other notable highest paid basketball players in Europe would be Alexey Shved when he was with Khimki Moscow Region in which he was making nearly $4,000,000 US dollars per season during the 2019-20 season.

Shane Larkin’s paycheck is also worth mentioning and puts him in the top of highest paid basketball players in Europe with a annual pay of $3,700,000 US dollars.

The highest paid basketball player of all-time in Europe would have been Josh Childress when he signed a $20 million US dollar deal for three years with Greek powerhouse Olympiacos in 2008.

[KrAzY3]

So, the TLDR is that some delusional poster is trying to use a washed up Arroyo as a representative for NBA talent in general?