Per david aldridge Durant won't even take his non bird rights raise and may even take a pay cut to help the warriors with their luxury tax issues
That's some BS. If they aren't going to be hard capped, Durant should take all the money he deserves. I get trying to save the owners money, but man, that just sounds like BS to me. Ironic, since we are usually calling players greedy lol.
Good for him/them. Kevin Durant is willing to take even less money than he is eligible for to re-sign with the Golden State Warriors. Durant passed on his maximum of $34.65 million and was expected to re-sign for $31.5 million, which represents a 20 percent raise from his 16-17 salary. Now, Durant could go even lower with his salary, perhaps as low as $28 million or $25 million. Durant's decision to pass on his maximum allowable salary helped the Warriors re-sign Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. Durant's generosity will reduce the Warriors' tax bill.
You know who else took less money than he could have made as a free agent? This guy: Even if he wanted to preserve the ability to leave after 1 year, he could have opted out and did a sign and trade for a more favorable 1-year contract. I think he also waived his trade bonus.
KD is proving all he wants to do is win. The glow of winning a championship hasn't worn off. For now, he's drinking the Kool-Aid of unselfishness. He'll get his $200+ million guaranteed later.
If he was generous when he was younger OKC could have kept him, Harden, Westbrook and Ibaka together.
I would say the first 3-peat bulls (your career is good when you have to specify 3-peats) and the '98 team weren't superteams. better than everyone else in the league? yeah. but mostly just because they had michael jordan and the other fairly competitive teams didn't, at least in terms of the seeming inevitability of their wins even though they actually had quite a few 6 game series that came down to 1 or 2 shots. you just always trusted jordan to make that shot or set-up his teammates for that shot and that's why they always won. you're right on bird and magic. certainly hasn't hurt them in terms of public perception (though it certainly will durant since he joined a superteam in progress), but i know i certainly weigh it in my own perception of their careers. magic played with two other overall #1 draft picks who lived up to their #1 draft pick status, and played in a horrible western conference. people think lebron has it easy and don't realize how easy magic had it.
My own feeling is that Warriors slightly overpaid for Iguodala. So if Durant agrees to even less than $31.5m, which really surprises me TBH, then in effect Durant gave up money to Iguodala. But keep in mind that it's not all "sacrifice". Durant on potential dynasty Warriors probably increased his endorsement income substantially. Plus it's only a sacrifice for one year. If Durant sacrifices a few million for one year but gets another championship, and it gets more endorsements to compensate, it's hardly a sacrifice at all.
So? He got his ring and money will come. It's not generous or anything, it's odd because his teammates are saying FU pay me these guys are crazy rich
The dubs value went from like 500mil to 3bil, but Durant wants to help the owner make more money. Why doesn't the owner pay a bigger tax bill?
Nike signed Durant to a 10-year extension in 2014 worth as much as $300 million. I'm sure he'll do fine. Being on a superteam and winning more championships probably buys back the lost salary and then some. Plus its only a one year deal. But even so, its still a big surprise. Everything pointed to it being for $31.5m.
the only way to break such superteams is money getting too expensive. If superstars get 10 million less then good luck. Now back to cheering for injuries. -yes I know I am despicable but I don't care. Hate cupcakes.
He should take less, that's the cost of getting carried. Only true stars get the max which is why Curry got the max and KD had to take whatever they decided to throw his way. He knows he has to take it because he can't win anywhere else.
