Report: Big 3 won't take pay cut in order for Heat owner to save on luxury tax
If the Miami Heat think that LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade will be leaving boatloads of money on the table to once again team up this offseason, they may have another thing coming.
When the Big Three first joined up in the summer of 2010, they agreed to deals that were, in combination, roughly $50 million below what they could have received with individual maximum contracts on the open market.
Each could have received $125 million over six seasons but instead signed six-year deals with smaller annual salaries and opt-out clauses after four years. Wade took the biggest cut, earning $65.7 million over the past four seasons, while Bosh and James each earned $67.1 million.
While it's unclear what the trio may do now that they face their opt-out decisions, many have speculated that they will opt out to once again sign team-friendly contracts, retooling for another run in 2014-15 and beyond. That may be the case, but it won't be without some assurances that the savings will be used to make the team better, not line the pockets of ownership.
From New York Daily News:
If James is willing to restructure his deal and take less money, he’ll likely get Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to do the same. The Big Three wants to stay together and after the record beating they absorbed, sacrificing at the bargaining table would give the Heat much-needed flexibility so it can gear up for another title run next season.
As team insiders have maintained for months, James isn’t interested in reducing his salary from $20.6 next season and $22.1 million in 2015-16 just so that team owner Micky Arison can avoid paying luxury taxes. As they say, been there, done that and all it got James was second place.
Bosh, who makes identical money to James, and Wade, who makes slightly less, at around $41.5 million for the next two seasons, also don’t want to rework their deals solely to give Arison another tax break. They want the money put to good use, meaning adding talent so that Miami can return to the Finals for a fifth straight season.
In more succinct terms, the Big Three aren't signing team-friendly deals unless that money is used on appreciable upgrades. Which, yeah, can't really blame them, right? They took sizable pay cuts and brought two NBA championships and two additional NBA Finals appearances, while the franchise paid just an estimated $28.4 million in luxury tax to improve the team over those four years.
Wade, in our eyes, would be the sticking point for a salary-shaving arrangement to come into place. James makes a great deal of money beyond his salary and Bosh is young enough at age 30 that he'll sign another contract at some point. Wade, however, is already 32 and may not have another chance to secure $41.9 million guaranteed if he opts out, takes a pay cut and then tries to sign a new deal at age 35 or 36.
Pat Riley has done the seemingly impossible before in bringing the three stars together. It seems anything but a slam dunk that he'll be able to do so again with ease, but Mickey Arison coming correct with the checkbook would help.