THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607150137
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 66 lines
With its current orgy of free-agent spending, the NBA is taking Moneyball to new heights. Absurd heights? You be the judge.
Now the Miami Heat want to make Alonzo Mourning the sport's first $100-million man.
Most of us, jaded as we are, don't even flinch when one player after another hits the lottery.
But $100 million? That's the sort of number that gets your attention.
Not that the $98 million the Heat will shell out to Juwan Howard is chopped liver.
The Bullets apparently insulted Howard with an $89 million offer. Imagine asking your franchise player to make ends meet on $89 million.
Maybe there's a simple explanation for Miami's jackpot Lotto-style offers to Mourning and Howard. Perhaps nobody in his right mind would think of living in Miami for less than $14 million a year. With all that heat and humidity, imagine the dry-cleaning bills.
Here's another possible explanation: NBA executives have gone nuts.
Gary Payton is re-signing with the Seattle Sonics for $85 million over seven years. Fight the urge to say, ``only'' $85 million.
Meanwhile, the New York Knicks have lured two new guards to the Garden: New Jersey's Chris Childs and Detroit's Allan Houston.
Childs will make your basic NBA journeyman's salary, about $4 million a year. But Houston is being paid $56 million for seven years.
That's $8 million per season for a player most casual basketball fans couldn't pick out of a layup line.
Michael Jordan may be worth $25 million a year; look at all he's done for the Bulls over the years. And Shaquille O'Neal won't have to apologize if he accepts the $14 million per season the Lakers want to give him.
But Jordan and O'Neal are the two most recognizable, marketable basketball players on the planet.
There are maybe a handful of NBA stars almost in their class. That list does not begin, though, with Mourning or Howard. It will never even include Allan Houston, a big guard with a very good jump shot. Houston is not the second coming of Clyde Frazier.
Howard is considered a better catch. At 23, he is an excellent all-around player with room for growth. He also has a reputation for being a model citizen off the court. Apparently, in Howard's case, character counts for something.
But $98 million!? That's a lot to pay for a Boy Scout who averages 22 points a game.
Like any feeding frenzy, the bidding for free agents can get out of hand. When it does, it is customary for someone to point out that these players are ``entertainers,'' no different, let's say, than movie clown Jim Carrey or TV's David Letterman.
Carrey was paid $20 million for his last film, and Letterman reportedly makes $14 million a year at CBS.
Why, the argument goes, shouldn't Howard, Mourning, Payton or even Allan Houston make comparable wages?
Fine. But without Jim Carrey, there are no Jim Carrey movies, not necessarily a bad thing. If Letterman doesn't show up for work, there is no Late Show or advertising revenue.
The Heat play on if Mourning or Howard is injured. The Sonics would remain a profitable franchise without Payton. The Knicks won't stop selling out the Garden if Houston gets lost in the subway.
Players are entertainers, sure. But not even Letterman's staff could put together a Top Ten List of why some of these guys are making the money they're being paid. by CNB