There’s hell; then there’s the Knicks’ payroll

Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni must be history buffs. How else can one explain their assumed roles in the reconstruction of the New York Knickerbockers.

Instead of riding off into retirement Walsh signed on as general manager. D’Antoni left Phoenix after leading the Suns to four consecutive fifty win seasons.

To understand the magnitude of their decisions is to understand the money pit also known as the Knicks player payroll.

The Knicks made headlines with an overall player payroll in excess of 96 million dollars for the ’07-’08 season. Not until the Mavericks traded for Jason Kidd and his $21,000,000 contract did any other team pay more for its basketball…talent?

For their 96 mill the Knicks won 23 games.

Hey, that’s five more than the Patriots, and it’s been argued that New England had one of the greatest teams of all-time.

On the other hand only Seattle, Memphis, Minnesota, and Miami won fewer than the Knicks. Of course Miami had Shaq doing his finest Big Baby Huey until he was traded. Kevin McHale proved he still bleeds Celtic green when he pawned Kevin Garnett. The Sonics spent a season learning how lame a duck can be. And Memphis has no friggin’ excuse.

Leading the way for New York in the category of grand theft salary was Stephon Marbury. At 19,012,500 Marbury earned more than the combined paychecks of Rajon Rondo ($1,222,280), Chris Paul ($3,615,960), Deron Williams ($4,010,640), and Derek Fisher ($4,350,000).

Stephon played 24 games in the Knickerbocker back court. The Brooklyn native averaged a little less than 14 points per game. Man, who is Marbury’s agent?

I know. I know. You are laughing so hard you need to catch your breath.

I’ll wait.

It gets better.

Zach Randolph came in second on the Knick grand larceny list. On the surface Randolph’s salary looks like money well spent: $13,333,333 (before you think Zach is enamored with the number 3, his uniform reads #50) for 17 ppg and 10 rpg. That’s not bad. Until you consider Chris Bosh earned $12,455,000. Carlos Boozer? 11.5 million. Even Rasheed Wallace, who is the highest paid player on the Pistons, earned less than ‘Zach-attack’ with a salary of $12,790,000.

Oh yeah – all those guys played in the playoffs…except, of course, for Randolph.

Wait there’s more.

If you had your pick of the following centers: Kendrick Perkins, Antonio McDyess, Dwight Howard, Al Horford, or Eddy Curry; who would you pay the most? Howard right? No, no, no the self-appointed Super Man, who led the Magic into the second round of the playoffs, earned a tad over 6 mill. Horford, whose Hawks almost pulled off the unthinkable when they took the Celts to seven games, pocketed 3.7 million. Kendrick Perkins and Antonio McDyess are still playing in the playoffs. They are taking home $4.4 and $6.3 respectively.

Actually, this is kinda like Sesame Street: one of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong. Yeah, of the five players, only Curry didn’t play in the playoffs, yet the Knick center took home a cool $8,947,543.

If you are scratching your head, it’s all right. I am too.

Then there’s Quentin Richardson whose salary of $8.1 million ranks him ahead of Andre Igoudala ($2,804,889), Hedo Torkoglu ($6,373,900), Stephen Jackson ($6,630,000), Bruce Bowen ($4,125,000) and Shane Battier ($5,883,600).

The list goes on: Jamal Crawford ($7.9), Malik Rose ($7.1), Jerome James ($5.8), Jared Jefferies ($5.6).

So much for performance-based pay.

What’s worse? All the players mentioned above are due to get raises next year!

Marbury has a player option coming. My guess is he’ll opt to receive the $20,840,625 that he signed for.

In fact the Knicks have 89 million already locked up into next year’s salaries.

Randolph, Curry, Crawford, and Jefferies are all signed to wear the Knick jersey for the next three seasons. Tinker Bell doesn’t even have enough pixie dust to make that situation better.

It wouldn’t be so bad if you could trade these guys, but where’s the trade value?

Here’s hoping the contracts of Walsh and D’Antoni outlast that of their players.