Mark Cuban Loves Dirk Nowitzki More Than You Love Anything In Your Life
I mean this has to be the least surprising news of all time right? It makes sense, I’d argue no NBA superstar has taken more discounts throughout his career than Dirk did with the Mavs. It’s part of why Cuban and Mavs fans love this man so much, he was all about the team the team the team above anything else. It’s actually pretty wild how often he was willing to take that discount
Dirk Nowitzki has once again given the Dallas Mavericks a big discount, agreeing to a two-year, $10 million contract. The deal came after the team declined their $25 million option for the upcoming season, a move made after they consulted with Nowitzki, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, suggesting he was on board with the much lower salary.
As many have noted, this is the third time Nowitzki has given the Mavs a considerable discount on a contract. But in reality, his discounts actually started before that. In 2006, Nowitzki still had two years remaining on his original rookie extension when he agreed to another extension worth $59 million over three years. If he had not taken that deal, he would have been eligible in 2008 for a six-year, $158 million max contract as a 10-year veteran, which would have come before the NBA started to curb salaries in 2011.
If we assume Nowitzki would not have opted out of the max deal early, his next contract would have come in 2014 and he would have been eligible for a five-year, $239 million max contract through the 2018-19 season. Instead, Nowitzki signed a three-year, $25 million contract in 2014, a one-year $25 million deal in 2016, and the latest contract that runs through 2018-19.
Those two max contracts would have pushed Nowitzki’s career earnings to $446 million by the end of the 2018-19 season, $194 million more than his actual career earnings ($252 million).
Now granted he still made over $250M from basketball contracts so it’s not as if he’s hurting, but there was always some speculation that once he officially hung it up that Cuban would do something crazy like give him a fuck ton of money for a documentary or something. Well now we know that reward is looking like a bit of ownership for a franchise valued at $1.9B. Not bad! And honestly, if we’re talking about guys who deserve some ownership stake in a franchise, Dirk is obviously at the top of the list. I’m not sure there are two people on the planet who live and die with the Mavs more than Cuban and Dirk. The same way he’s in a rare class of players who deserve to have their own decal on an NBA court, it’s the same thing here. There are many only a handful of guys who you would say it makes sense and is well deserved for them to get a piece of ownership so I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with this.
My question is, at what point did Dirk know this was a possibility? Like when he signed all these discounts, did Cuban throw out that one day he’d get a piece of the pie? That can’t be allowed in the CBA and if it is well shit if I was a player that is a trade I would make 100% of the time. The values of NBA franchises are only going up and that’s just smart business. If you’re someone like Dirk and you already have all this money, why not? For example remember that dickhead Warriors owner that pushed Kyle Lowry during the Finals? He owned just a 8% stake in the Warriors and that shit netted him $180M. Something tells me Dirk is getting a percentage similar to that at least. If I were him I’d use the difference in money he gave up as a starting point for how much of the team Cuban has to give him and guess what he’ll say yes because he loves that man.
Honestly Dirk has to have had one of the best NBA careers all time. Universally loved, got his much needed ring, made hundreds of millions as a player, has his famous fadeaway as a decal on the court for next season, and now most likely is getting a piece of ownership. What a life.