Spurs spend big bucks
ESPN released a list this week of the highest paying sports franchises in the world. They ranked them based on the average salary they pay to their players each year.
Not surprisingly, there are a lot of European soccer teams at the top along with the New York Yankees, but would you believe the San Antonio Spurs are 12th on the list? They’re sitting right behind Manchester United, an English Premier League soccer team famous for spending absurd amounts of money.
Actually, the Spurs have the second highest average annual salary of all the NBA teams at about $5.5 million a year. They’re behind the Lakers ($6.3 million) but above the Bulls ($5.3 million), the Celtics ($5.3 million), the Heat ($5.3 million) and the Knicks ($4.2 million).
Of course, since NBA teams are obviously smaller than soccer and baseball teams, the Spurs ranked 83rd in overall payroll but it’s still amazing to me to see them at the top of this list.
I would have never known the Spurs were one of the highest paying teams in the league until this list came out. I guess the salaries of the "Big 3" really add up quickly.
Is anyone else surprised by the Spurs’ place on this list?
No news that the Spurs are big spenders.
A bit surprised that the spurs are ranked second in the NBA though.
As a fan i regularly keep tabs on http://hoopshype.com/salaries.htm
I now wonder who has the right numbers.
Not surprised at all. Timmy's salary will probably be reduced somewhat next season, but there is talk of going after batum so that's more salary. But my question on batum is who are we going to release or not resign since we currently have a full roster...
A little bit surprised! But taking into consideration how the big 3 are paid, the spending curve is normal. Ther spurs pay the big 3 a lot of money, leaving the role players crumbs. This could be the reason some players are avoiding the team. The money is concentrated to the big 3. They are stingy in paying other players.
@rtesoro440 Crumbs, really??
Stephen Jackson $9,260,000
Tiago Splitter $3,672,000
Matt Bonner $3,315,000
Antonio McDyess $2,620,000
James Anderson $1,463,52
Kawhi Leonard $1,731,960
Cory Joseph $1,028,400
DeJuan Blair $986,000
Danny Green $884,293
Gary Neal $788,872
Wish I was making those crumbs!
@Chris32 @rtesoro440 I know, James Anderson rode the bench most of the season after his trade demand, and look at his salary...
yeah, a big surprise. i always thought the spurs were frugal, but that seemed to change when we went after richard jefferson; so, i've noticed the extra effort our spurs have done trying to sign bigger free-agent names.
We typically keep a full roster of 12 players, and we don't have too much in the way of league minimum players. We also don't have much dead cap space keeping us from being able to pay players. That 5.5mil/year average is just a bit above the standard MLE. We traditionally have a lot of players that make between 4.5-9 mil/year. We also have been lucky to get bargains when keeping players like Manu and Parker for well under max contract values. All of this adds up to having more money to pay for the guys that are more to the end of the bench.
No.. we have 3 future hall of famers on our team and they raise that figure considerably but have earned their wages unlike other millionaires in the league *cough* Luke Walton *cough*
