2014 WFNY Tribe Predictions
March 31, 2014Facebook map of MLB fandom
March 31, 2014Really, who isn’t jealous of Miguel Cabrera’s new contract? His existing deal plus the eight-year extension will pay him close to $300 million in total. Last week, when asked about it by Brian Windhorst, LeBron James said he was jealous of that money, before saying he wishes the NBA “didn’t have a salary cap.”
“He’s the best player in baseball, and the best players in each sport should be rewarded,” James said. “It’d be nice to sign a 10-year deal worth $300 million.”
Of course nobody should feel sorry for LeBron James who earns lots and lots of money in his own right between the NBA and endorsements. Still, consider LeBron’s talent level and his stature in his game as one of about 450 or so players in his league.1 Meanwhile Miguel Cabrera is easily one of the best players in his game, but he’s also one of about 1,300 players in his league.2 So, it does seem a little bit strange that Cabrera could be worth double in overall contract value than Kobe Bryant who once signed a deal for seven years and just over $136 million.
I’ve suggested that one of the ways that the NBA can deal with player movement would be to have a franchise tag for one player on each roster. This franchised player wouldn’t be subject to the salary cap at all. So your team could have a roster of players that need to cost under $70 million for example, but then if you have a Kobe, or LeBron, you can pay them true market value. I haven’t worked out all the particulars, but each team can only have one of these guys making that tag scarce and inflating the value of playing in smaller markets for at least that one player who could be designated. It also might do wonders to break up super teams.
Anyway, it makes me wonder what LeBron James’ true market value might be to his sport considering Miguel Cabrera’s worth $300 million in his sport. Everyone said that the Miami Heat “sacrificed” to put their team together down in Miami. Imagine if they really had to sacrifice though. Imagine if LeBron was making $45 million per year as the “franchise” player and Wade and Bosh had to fight for the right to make $20 million each under the cap while also having teammates.
More importantly, would $45 million even be enough for LeBron’s true market value?
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(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
10 Comments
The problem is that you are assuming that the NBA and MLB are equals and they are not even close. the MLB revenue model is much different than the NBA. if Lebron thinks he should make Cabrera’s money, he should try and by the triple crown winner in baseball.
The average MLB game is 3 hours compared to around 2.25 for NBA. Also MLB plays double the games.
MLB revenue is projected at 8Bill this year whereas NBA is 3.7B. Not having a cap would ruin the NBA. I am not a huge fun of professional basketball right now as it is, but by not having a cap, there would be so much more disparity within the league it would lose any interest it still has. Teams in the NFL can go from the bottom of the league, to a playoff team in a few years (other than CLE) because of the hard decisions clubs must make on which players to sign, and which to let go.
30 MLB teams there Craig, it’s Opening Day, we’ve all got to be in game shape!
Looking at marginal wins, Cabrera is projected to be worth fairly close to $300M over the length of that deal. And as long as he’s cranking out 7 WAR seasons, he’s worth more than $30M/year. If we were to use marginal wins to value Lebron, I think we’d come across something around $50M/year.
Didn’t teenage LeBron score a $90m Nike deal before stepping foot on an NBA court?
I know that’s not your point, Craig. But I’ll worry about the virtually free college meat being barbequed for NCAA revenue before I concern myself in the slightest to what The Man is doing to LeBron.
Please…that’s all we’ve got today, LeQuit’s not getting ENOUGH cash? Next up maybe you’ll break the news George Clooney’s having trouble finding enough women to date.
Science has not yet reached the point where we know if it is playing the world’s saddest song as well:
It must be hard being a millionaire.
With the kind of figures being thrown around, I believe the author has a clouded view of reality. When a person is making the g.d.p. of some countries it is not good for the sport and could be a factor in declining popularity.
NPR’s Planet Money Podcast answered this exact question with LeBron. They quantified his value by looking at the franchise values of CLE and MIA, I think it was 40 million.