Overpaid, and Thrilled to See It


Lost amidst the gruesome injury to Andrew Bogut and the Celtics destroying nipping the Cavs this weekend was Bean receiving a 3 year contract extension from the Flakers.  For those unfamiliar with the contract, he already had next year in place at $24.8 million.  So this contract is for three years beginning in 2011-2012.  For those 3 seasons the contract is set to pay  $27.4, $30.2, and $32 million through 2014.

This just in:
Celticslife- May 1st, 2013

After an embarrassing first round sweep at the hand of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Flakers' Owner Jerry Buss is adamant about trading the corpse of Kobe Bryant.

"Kobe's a shell of his former self" said Buss, "it's imperative we can clear cap space by trying to move him for some more spending flexibility and to build for the future."
With this, the Flakers now have $80,482,457 in guaranteed salary for the 2012 season.  They do have Team Options on Lamar Scrotum and Andrew Bynum for 2013 but for the 2014 season they already have $57,463,130 in guaranteed salary for just 3 players: Bean, Artest and Gasol.  That's an awful lot of money to dedicate to guys who will be 36, 35 and 34.  With the salary cap slated to decrease dramatically with the next collective bargaining agreement,  the Flakers will be seriously strapped for cash while willingly contributing to the Luxury Tax Fund.

Am I the only one thrilled to see this happen?  The Flakers made a major mistake committing this kind of money to this guy.  This season he's beginning to show he's starting to wear down as the injuries are beginning to take their toll on him.  He'll be 32 next season and will finish this contract about to turn 36.  Maybe LAL was blinded by thinking he really was MJ.  Sorry Jerry Buss but if you think that, you're a full-fledged moron.

Michael came into the league at the age of 21 after  3 years in college.  His second season he only played 18 games as he was injured all year.  At the ages of 30 and 31 he left to try his hand at baseball.  That's significantly less wear and tear than Bean has been put through.  In fact through the time Jordan was 30 years old he had logged 30,487 minutes, between the regular season and playoffs.  Bean by comparison had logged 41,419 minutes.  That's a big-time difference.  [Tangent Time: Bean flashing the "4 fingers" after they won it all last year, copying MJ, yet again.  Get real douchebag.  You were the 2nd best player on a team that won 3 titles playing alongside the most dominant big man of the decade.  How many more titles would Michael have won if he played alongside Hakeem Olajuwon in the beginning of his career.  You don't think Chicago would've knocked off Detroit in 1989 and 1990 with MJ and Dream (probably 1988 as well)?  You're crazy and don't know anything about basketball then, or you're a buffoon and your name is Chris Wallace].

I can't wait until this happens.  It should bring a huge smile to Celtics fans everywhere.  In the words of fellow columnist Three-Toe, "Suck it LA."

For more information on Bean, be sure to check out his Dickipedia page.