Jordan would have left millions on the table if he tried to change teams back then.
Today, players can get paid HUGE amounts of money no matter where they play. There is a perk for some players to stay with their team but it really isn't enough to incentivize them to stay.
He could have left before the 96 season. The Knicks offered him $25+ million -- Over $5 more than the 2nd highest paid player and $10 million more than the 3rd highest paid player.
He could have left to play with Ewing, Charles Oakley, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, etc. in New York. That's a team that had averaged 55 wins over a 5 year period without Jordan.
Instead, he gave Chicago a chance to beat the offer and they did, giving him $30 million.
So Jordan had his chance to go chase more titles with another team and he stayed in Chicago.
Was it an option for every player to do that? No.
He could have left before the 96 season. The Knicks offered him $25+ million -- Over $5 more than the 2nd highest paid player and $10 million more than the 3rd highest paid player.
He could have left to play with Ewing, Charles Oakley, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, etc. in New York. That's a team that had averaged 55 wins over a 5 year period without Jordan.
Instead, he gave Chicago a chance to beat the offer and they did, giving him $30 million.
So Jordan had his chance to go chase more titles with another team and he stayed in Chicago.
Was it an option for every player to do that? No.
You are so full of shit.
The salary cap in 1996 was $23 million.
Patrick Ewing made 18.7 million that year and the Knicks were well over the cap.
They could not have offered Jordan more than whatever the min or MLE was in those times.
Do you always just make stuff up when you lose an argument?
You are so full of shit.
The salary cap in 1996 was $23 million.
Patrick Ewing made 18.7 million that year and the Knicks were well over the cap.
They could not have offered Jordan more than whatever the min or MLE was in those times.
Do you always just make stuff up when you lose an argument?
So he could have left after winning 4 titles, winning 72 games and being the reigning champion but instead chose to stay and take the biggest contract offer available? What rational human being would actually choose to take the Knicks offer?
You know, they have this thing called google.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls/do-you-remember-when-michael-jordan-almost-joined-new-york-knicks?amp
It was before the 1996 season. He came back at the end of the 1995 season.
In fairness, the offer was made by the Knicks and it was pretty clearly a massive cap violation. They apparently were going to pay him a large chunk via Sheraton commercials. It's unclear whether the league would have actually approved the contract.
But, honestly, there was just no reason for Jordan to take that offer other than pure disdain for Jerry Krause. The Bulls were arguably the greatest team of ALL TIME in 1996 and he was being offered a contract for MORE money by the Bulls.
The problem with arguing counter-factuals is that you can't really prove them. In the 90s, stars only left their own team when they were either fully washed or close to it. There were a few exceptions like Shaq but generally they stayed with their teams because it leaving would incur a huge financial hit for the player.
Ultimately, the notion that players are somehow more greedy or less pure than players in the past is complete horseshit revisionist history.
No, it was after.
Like I said before, the Knicks were way to far over the cap to offer anything close to that prior to ‘96.
Wrong. Not a salary cap violation. As long as it can be shown the player's value as a spokesman met the value offered to him -- it was legal and DID NOT count against the cap. In Jordan's case, he was worth more than what they were offering, as he was the most famous athlete in the world.
And the Bulls were looking to offer Jordan $18-20 million. Because of the Knicks offer, they upped it to $30 million.
And AGAIN, the offer from the Knicks was before the 1996 season, before the 4th championship, before the 72 wins.
Well we can agree to disagree on whether the contract was legal. It was pretty clearly a cap avoidance contract.
Don't know what to tell you. The 72 win team was the 95-96 team. The 1996 offseason was after that season.
Well we can agree to disagree on whether the contract was legal. It was pretty clearly a cap avoidance contract.
Yeah,
lots of liberties you took there.
the Knicks still couldn’t offer Jordan $25 million without help from the outside.
Not to mention, why would Jordan want to leave his team that just had the best season in NBA history for a declining core?
I don't know (or care) a whole lot about the MJ/Knicks thing. But it is possible that while it would have been a "cap avoidance contract", it may have been a loophole that hadn't yet been closed.
In the 80's the Lakers signed Magic to a 25 year, $25 million dollar contract. Pretty sure that was cap avoidance as well.
Teams aren't allowed to do that anymore.