By Dan Lust for LVSportsBiz.com
In 1997 and 1998, Michael Jordan — at the forefront of the American media thanks to a 10-part, five-week documentary series on ESPN — was not just the highest paid player in the NBA. He earned more than most teams’ entire rosters.
As the greatest of all time, Jordan deserved it. But it was exposing a flaw in the CBA.
For the NBA 1996-97 season, the salary cap for each team was set at $24.3 million. But keep in mind that teams were allowed to exceed the cap to re-sign their own players without penalty.
Jordan signed a one-year $30.1 million deal, shattering the $18.7 million contract set by Patrick Ewing the year before for the NY Knicks.
Jordan’s deal, at the time, pointed to greener pastures for athletes across the professional sports landscape. Owners took notice that he had clearly reset the contract market. To offer context, Jordan’s one-year $30.1 million deal was:
• five times the highest paid player in the NHL (Wayne Gretzky)
• three times the highest paid player in Major League Baseball (Cecil Fielder)
• two times the salary of the highest best plater in the NFL (Deion Sanders)
Later CBA’s fortified an additional rule known as the “luxury tax,” which penalized teams monetarily that went over the salary cap to pay their players.
The 1997 and 1998 Bulls championship teams violated both of these rules and may have been the reason behind their creation.
It begs the question of whether a team in the modern NBA, bound by these CBA restrictions, can ever replicate Chicago’s six championships in eight years.
Until that happens, it will be hard for any new contender to challenge the Chicago Bulls place in NBA history.
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