Following the accusations of fraud against Kawhi Leonard, NBA player salaries have come under the microscope from the public perception. Payments and promises of payments made to NBA players are now being dug up as a result of the scrutiny that Steve Ballmer and the Clippers faced for their dealings with Kawhi Leonard.
Subsequently, Mavericks forward Anthony Davis‘ comments from June 2024 went viral, where he explained NBA payments to the host of the “Join the Lobby” podcast. He explained the predominant options that players have to accept payments under the salary cap.
“Yo, one year, $30 million, you get the $30 million in one time,” joked Davis initially. This points to how almost all payments in the league are broken down into multi-part payments, making it very difficult to connect two separate ‘part payments’ as interconnected.
“Nah, you get to decide,” Davis further added. “You don’t decide from the standpoint of when you get paid, like obviously 1st and 15th of every month, like every other job. But you get to decide whether you want all your money in six months or 12 months,” he further explained.
“It depends on who you are and how you are financially. Are you stable enough to go the entire summer without getting a check? Or do you need to get money because you spend a lot of money?” said Davis on his recommended option.
“Obviously, coming in, I think a lot of guys go twelve months. But like, if you’re older and financially stable, then you’re like ‘I’m cool for the summertime, give me all my money [in six months].’ I think a lot of players might not even know that you could do that… I think they only think they have the option of twelve months.”
Anthony Davis earned approximately $43 million from the Lakers and Mavericks for the 2024-25 season. So either he took $3.5 million per month for 12 months or $7 million for six months (approximates without tax).
Young players are often more volatile with their financial choices and don’t often have the required stability yet. Hence, Davis was right to assume that most people would pick the 12-month option upon coming into the league. Considering that Davis is entering his 14th season in the NBA after getting drafted in 2012, it is likely that he took the six-month option.
In the situation that a player is waived, the organization continues paying the remainder of their dues unless a player is picked up by another team off waivers, as it is a unilateral move. But in the case of a buyout, both parties also have the option of coming up with an alternative arrangement of payment to stretch the impact on the salary cap over multiple seasons.
