The controversy with sports contracts
Teams are often defined by how much money they spend on free agents. Teams in every sport will spend big and some will barely spend. But today we will look at the potential fallout of sports contracts. Last season the Cleveland Browns decided to make a splash trading for former Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson. Following the trade Cleveland decided to hand him a five-year $230 million contract fully guaranteed the first in any sport. This made things hard for the Baltimore Ravens who were trying to extend their quarterback of the future former MVP Lamar Jackson. Jackson wanted a fully guaranteed contract just like Watson but the Ravens were hesitant to give it to him. This led to Jackson requesting a trade this offseason. The Ravens and him were able to come to an agreement five-year $260 million with the largest signing bonus in history. However if players are already asking for fully guaranteed contracts the problem will continue. Players also feel the need to request out if they don’t feel their value and the team does not want to extend them for the money they are asking for like Tyreek Hill. Hill requested out of Kansas City last offseason due to a stall in contract negotiations. This problem is not only evident in football but also in baseball and basketball.
MLB teams have been getting mad about the New York Mets continuing to spend money. The Mets currently own the highest payroll in the league at $345 million dollars. The low market teams do not like this because they feel that it is making it unfair yet the Oakland A’s who have continuously been able to develop talent decide to trade all of their players when they become contract eligible. This sets up certain teams in the MLB being very good and others being very bad as the A’s are currently on pace for 30-132 the worst of all time. While the Mets haven’t been the best this year they are still in the playoff race which seems out of question for the A’s this early in the season.
The disparity in payrolls can also be seen in the NBA. The highest payroll is $150 million more than the lowest payroll in the league. The Golden State Warriors are paying Steph Curry and Klay Thompson a combined $94 million. There are three teams in the NBA that have a team less than $94 million. The difference with the NBA is that after a player receives a max contract they are eligible for a super-max contract. Players like James Harden and Kyrie Irving will both hit free agency this summer in search for a super-max contract. In the NBA it is also a soft cap meaning teams can get around the salary cap. Teams in the NBA will try and form super teams getting three multi-time Allstars on the same team with max contracts. This happened with the Miami Heat when they signed Lebron James, and Chris Bosh in free agency to go with Dwayne Wade. This also happened with the Brooklyn Nets signing Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and trading for James Harden.
The most recent attempt has been the Phoenix Suns bringing in Kevin Durant to go with Devin Booker, Chris Paul, and Deandre Ayton. The Dallas Mavericks are currently trying to create a super team by looking to acquire Lebron James from the Lakers and re-signing Kyrie Irving to go with Luka Doncic. Many players in the NBA receive max contracts even if they aren’t stars like Draymond Green. However the thing with the NBA is that players can not sign a contract above 5 years unlike the NFL and MLB where players are able to sign players to decade long contracts.
In conclusion, while sports contracts help out the players a ton the teams are at a huge liability and fans start becoming disconnected to their teams.
