It is often said that superstars get a lot of privileges from their franchises that regular players don’t get. Whether those privileges extend to say in front office decisions or just asking for things before games, franchises are certainly willing to do things in order to keep their superstars happy.
It seems as though that is the case for the Brooklyn Nets. On an episode of The Dan Le Batard Show, author Matt Sullivan has stated that the Brooklyn Nets pay for the housing of their stars’ girlfriends. (8:50)
A very high-ranking official with the Nets who had a lot to do with the money said basically, there’s a blank check as soon as these guys got here – whether that’s buying a girlfriend or a girlfriend on the side a house in California for a week, whether that’s just putting up money for the boys and the homeboys and equipment for random s***, they’re totally cool with that.
Just renting a house on the team dime. These guys don’t pay for a lot of personal stuff themselves. And so, the financial team of the Nets would kind of come every week or so, they’d be like, “OK, we thought we had this under control. We’ve got to redo the budgets every week.” And they were like it was just a new thing every damn time.
There’s no question that this is quite a development, as this seems like a salary cap violation, as players aren’t supposed to be paid extra beyond their NBA contracts. It remains to be seen whether anyone will comment on this claim, but it is certainly crazy to think about how stars are potentially given the “blank check” treatment.
