Salaries don’t match value for NBA stars

When several of the NBA’s biggest stars march into the most important negotiating session in the history of the sport on Friday, there promises to be twisting of truths and fuzzy math and conservative owners determined to deliver themselves a dramatic redistribution of wealth. The biggest lie will go untouched, unchallenged.

Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade are the most underpaid and undercompensated people in these labor negotiations. They make far too little, and truth be told, most of their teammates make far too much.

For everything they do to drive TV ratings and gate receipts, the global advancement and relentless news coverage, it’s a farce that the elite of the elite have to listen to so many sorry, sloppy owners tell them they deserve rollbacks on present contracts and deserve future ones to be slashed. These stars are the NBA. They’re everything.

Nowhere in sports is the superstar more vital than basketball, because the ball’s forever in the star’s hands and a singular talent has the most transformational impact. Let owners bid on the true value the elite stars bring to a franchise, to the league, and Wade was asked where he believes the bidding would rise per season?

“I’m sure it would get to $50 million,” Wade told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday afternoon.

He’s right, and there’s still a compelling case that it wouldn’t properly compensate what a Kobe Bryant, a LeBron James, even means far beyond his own team. Privately, Jerry Buss has told people that Bryant – who will make a league-high $25 million this season under his current contract terms – is worth perhaps $70 million a year to the Los Angeles Lakers. James has been the most prodigious talent – the compelling serial character – the sport’s manufactured.

In terms of driving revenue, if the NBA had no cap, the compensation would be totally different,” Wade said. “Like baseball, where they have no cap, you see the players that they feel fill arenas, that people come out to see, A-Rod, those kind of guys, look at how much money they make on their deals.

“You’ve got guys – starting with Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe and LeBron – all players that individually people wanted to come to see. And wanted to just have a glimpse, just one glimpse, to be able to say that I’ve seen that person play. For what they’ve done for the game, what they’ve done for organizations, I don’t think you can really put a dollar amount on it.”

We understand the position we’re in,” Wade said. “This whole labor thing for us is about the game, about all the players in the game. Not just the top tier, not just the lower tier. All the players. We’re all wrapped up in together. They need us, just like we need them on our teams.”