Even if the salary was one of the highest in the league at that time, it was not commensurate with Jordan's position as the top superstar in the league. According to Basketball-Reference.com's data, in the coming 20 15- 16 season, the average salary of players will exceed $430.
This number will soar in the coming year. In addition to the increase in ticket sales and merchandise sales, the NBA predicts that there will be a large influx of gold and money in the next nine years, which stems from the $24 billion national broadcast contract signed with Disney and Turner's parent company Open Stand. According to Jeff Zilkitt of USA-Today, this fund will start to flow into the coffers of the League in the 20 16- 17 season, so it is generally expected that the salary cap will rise by about 90 million dollars, and then it will rise to 108 million dollars in the 20 18 season. Compared with Jordan's first entry into this alliance, these figures are beyond our reach. When he joined the trade at 1984, the union's salary ceiling was only $3.6 million. The total income of the league is only $654.38+65 billion, and the average annual salary of players is only $290,000.
But Jordan's professional income seems nothing compared with the huge salary flying all over the sky in the league. Only this summer, six players, Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Covey Leonard, Kevin Love, Marc Gasol and Jimmy Butler, signed new contracts, and their income in the next five years exceeded the total income of Jordan 16. The national television broadcasting fund has raised the wage ceiling, and the pockets of players and team owners should expand rapidly in recent years.
After more than 30 years of actual rookie season, how much will Jordan earn if he re-enters the league as a rookie? In short, there must be a lot. It may even be enough to cover the whole Chicago area, just like the AIR series sold from him over the years.
As an all-star player who rose rapidly in the mid-1980s, Jordan will never encounter any resistance if he wants to get an indispensable part of the player selection contract in the third and fourth years. Before getting the second contract, the future Jordan had got about $20.68 million, only $ 800W less than Jordan's actual income in the first ten years of the league. For a long time, in the field of basketball economy, the first contract can't really determine a player's life, but the next contract often plays a decisive role.
For the future Jordan, this is obviously also a fact. He will be eligible for a rookie contract renewal on 20 18-in any case, there will be no change in that year's contract. Assuming that the future Jordan can become the best team in the league twice in the first three seasons and be selected for the All-Star Game twice, he will definitely become the designated player of the team.
With Kevin Durant and LeBron James about to sign their next long-term contract, this heavy-eyed figure is doomed to lose the throne. Davis' contract is based on the salary ceiling benchmark of $70 million for the 20 15- 16 season. Durant and James will implement the salary cap benchmark of $90 million in the 20 16- 17 season. Jordan will also follow this baseline in the future. He and his agent may negotiate the contract renewal in the summer of 20 18, when the salary cap may reach about 1 billion dollars. In this way, Jordan can get $30 million in the first year of the five-year contract, and the total contract amount will be as high as $654.38+$74.25 million.
According to these predictions, Jordan's income in the first seven years of entering the league will exceed all the salaries Jordan received when he retired. Please remember that the parameters of this inferred contract may change greatly in the next few years. Both the league and the players' union can collectively withdraw from the current labor agreement in the next 20 17, before Jordan gets the first eye-catching salary in the future.
If the status quo is maintained, Jordan will quietly stage a robbery against the team in 2024, when he will become an unrestricted free agent. According to the current CBA system, he can sign a maximum salary of no more than 30% of the salary cap of the current year or 105% of the salary for the 2023-24 season, whichever is greater. Unless the salary cap of $65.438+$200 million is raised again, Jordan will take the latter as the starting salary, which means that his income in that year will exceed $42 million. A five-year incremental contract, with a ratio of 7.5%, Jordan will have $244.34 million in his own vault.
Together, Jordan will earn nearly $560 million in professional income, which will far exceed the two highest-paid players in NBA history, kevin garnett and Kobe Bryant. And this is not MJ's endorsement contract. According to Dai Lun Lowell of ESPN, Jordan's first contract with Nike was $7 million for five years, which was unheard of at that time.
Compared with lebron james, who graduated from high school, Nike paid him $90 million in endorsement fees in seven years, which was really a trifle. Like Jordan, Nike also paid a higher price to poach James from Adidas. Last year, Adidas signed 20 14 NBA draft champion andrew wiggins. According to Kurt Herring of professional basketball Talk, in order to reach an agreement with him, Adidas paid a total of 65,438+0,000-65,438+0.2 million dollars in five years. In the future, Jordan can look forward to a more profitable sneaker contract in the future, just like most of the greatest players on the court.
Nike signed a 10 year contract with Kevin Durant, guaranteeing him a net profit of $300 million before the contract expires. James harden left Nike and signed a $200 million contract with Adidas. Andema renewed his contract with Stephen Curry until 2024, but the exact number has not been disclosed.
If Jordan is still playing, once his initial five-year contract expires, he is likely to get a contract similar to Harden and Durant, of course, in pure dollars. At this moment in his career, MJ has engraved five-time All-Stars, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Star MVP, Regular Season MVP and other honors on his resume.
No matter which way you take, more money will flow into the next Jordan's pocket, and he will leave his footprints in the league whenever and wherever.