NBA Free Agency: 16 Hours In, Over $500 Million Spent
Bryan Altman, CBS Local Sports
If you're an NBA player, December 25th is really just another day at the office. Besides the fact that there are usually five games that take place throughout the day, we all know that Christmas really falls on July 1 for NBA players.
That's when presents rain down from NBA front offices onto NBA players like three-pointers from Steph Curry's fingertips.
This year's NBA free agency period is no different. At present time, just over 16 hours have gone by and well over $500 million have been spent by NBA owners on free agents. On how many players you ask? Eight. Here are the eight players that make up the majority of that grand total.
DeMarre Carroll - Toronto Raptors - Four years, $60 million
Goran Dragic - Miami Heat - Five Years, $90 million
Thaddeus Young - Brooklyn Nets - Four Years, $50 million
Brook Lopez - Brooklyn Nets - Three Years, $60 million
Damian Lillard - Portland Trailblazers - Five Years, $120 million
Anthony Davis - New Orleans Pelicans - Five Years, $145 million
Kawhi Leonard - San Antonio Spurs - Five Years, $90 million
Danny Green - San Antonio Spurs - Four Years, $45 million
Oh, and don't be surprised once that dollar amount easily crosses the billion dollar threshold within the next few days since some of the best talent on the market has yet to sign as well. Among the free agents still available are:
LeBron James (relax Cleveland, he's not going anywhere... I think), Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love, Jimmy Butler, Tim Duncan, Dwayne Wade and DeAndre Jordan.
The amount of money being committed within the next few days is really unbelievable.
To try and put it in perspective, here are a few things that you could do with the amount of money that has been spent since free agency opened 13 hours ago.
The Largest Private Mega Yacht In The World: The NBA owners could have pooled their money together and spent their Fourth of July weekend on Roman Abromavich's yacht - the most expensive private yacht in the world at $485 million. They would even have $15 million plus to play with in case they wanted to do some activities on the yacht and stuff.
Take Your Pick Of 19 Different Hockey Teams:
Want to own a hockey team AND an NBA team? Well, for the price of $500 million, you could take your pick of 19 of the NHL's finest franchises.
Fund 1/4 Of Hilary Clinton's Presidential Campaign:
Hilary is shooting for something beyond the moon with he $2.5 billion target for fundraising her presidential campaign. If you really felt like it, you could totally cover less than 1/4 of her goal.
Buy 125 Super Bowl Commercials
At $4 million a pop, you could really get your message out there and inundate audiences with whatever ads you want.
Long story short, the amount of money being spent in free agency is just wild. This year, NFL owners spent a grand total of $1.321 billion on free agents in the first 72 hours of free agency according to SB Nation. The NBA might just be flirting with that total by the time we reach the 72 hour mark. Stay tuned.
Bryan Altman is, for some reason, an unabashed fan of the Rangers, Jets and Mets. If he absolutely had to pick a basketball team it would be the Knicks, but he'd gladly trade them for just one championship for either of his other three teams.
Questions or comments? Feel free to follow Bryan on Twitter or send him an email.
