NBA salaries are certainly going off of the charts. On July 1, it was announced that Steph Curry signed a $201M deal with the Golden State Warriors for five years. Now on Sunday, a player of lesser caliber received a $100M deal over three years. The Toronto Raptors, according to Spotrac's contract page for Kyle Lowry, signed the All-Star guard to a three-year deal worth nine figures.
Comparing to the old days
$100,000,000 is an exact amount that should trigger some memories for long-time NBA basketball fans. Older fans will certainly recall Glenn Robinson, the first overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft.
He was chosen ahead of Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Jalen Rose, and all other players in his cohort. Robinson played for the Purdue Boilermakers for three seasons and the school did nothing of note, making only the Elite Eight in 1994 as the peak season during Robinson's college tenure. He was certainly heralded coming out of college, but his contract demands as a rookie still shocked many.
What did Robinson want? He wanted $100,000,000 - but not just for three seasons like Lowry. Robinson wanted $100,000,000 for ten additional seasons on top of what Lowry got. Robinson wanted nine figures over thirteen seasons, a demand that was met with shock back in 1994's economic climate for professional basketball.
Robinson didn't get $100 million
Amidst all the hoopla over his contract demands, he finally signed a lesser deal. According to a New York Times article from November 4, 1994, "Glenn Robinson agreed to terms with the Milwaukee Bucks...after relinquishing his goal of becoming a $100 million basketball player." The next year, the NBA's David Stern decided that free-market principles didn't apply to NBA rookies.
He implemented a scale to ensure that future NBA debutants didn't attempt to do what Robinson did.
$100 million for thirteen seasons was considered crazy in 1994, yet bigger contracts are being signed daily at this time, with 2017's free agency deadline starting. That goes to show just how much economics have changed for NBA salaries over the last two-plus decades.
Glenn Robinson didn't have an amazing career, but at least he was the top pick in the 1994 NBA Draft. Ahead of actually playing in the NBA, he could claim to have the brightest future at that time among the other members of the draft.
Kyle Lowry, conversely, is a pretty good guard in the NBA, but arguably he isn't even the best player on his team behind DeMar DeRozan. Lowry certainly isn't anywhere near the best player in the Eastern Conference, in fact, the notion is laughable. Without even looking at the big guns in the East, you could argue that someone like Kemba Walker is better than Lowry. But regardless, the injury-prone Toronto Raptor will make nine figures over the next three years.
That probably means that the Raptors won't come close to the NBA Finals as they have locked up a lot of salary in a player that just isn't quite good enough to get them there. In the final analysis, Lowry won on this contract deal and it's hard to wrap one's mind around what the Raptors were thinking.
