Addidas and Fanta.

Fortune Magazine puts out a list of the highest paid athletes every year. For 2007 they had LeBron at around 31 million. He's not going anywhere.

I was scrolling around on HoopsHype today and in various U.S. publications, the following players expressed that they would consider playing in Europe for the right money:
Kobe Bryant
Carlos Boozer
LeBron James
Chris Paul
Chris Bosh
Carmela Anthony
Dwayne Wade

...sooner or later, a "star" or top draft pick is going to open the floodgates for a minor exodus of pretty good players to Europe.

I saw that too. I don't know if throwing $50 million a year at one of these guys would make business sense, but for a billionaire owner who wants a highly visible status symbol it might be tempting.

The way i see it, the NBA used to be THE place to bawl.
...now it seems destined to turn into ONE OF the places to bawl.

There's no crying in basketball.

In all seriousness, will this not make the NBA eventually rethink the cap?

In an extreme hypethetical, what if Kobe and Lebron were both lured away to Europe because they took offers that were above the limit in the NBA? That would kill the league.

I like the cap, but this definitely gives the player's union some serious leverage in their next negotiation.

Since players of that ilk will never play for Det....I like it.

Good point.

...Tell that to this guy.