Great commercial. As a side note - Adam Morrison is going to make $5.2 million in 2010. WTF? Following the Tyson Chandler/Emeka Okafor trade/salary dump, I’m starting to think the Bobcats might have the most idiotic front office in the NBA. Morrison was drafted as a “pure shooter,” yet through 2 full NBA seasons he’s shooting just 37% from the floor.

Not quite sure what the Lakers thought they’d get from him, but at least they got Shannon Brown in the trade, who ended up being a key player for them in the playoffs. Either way Morrison will be lucky if he plays 10 minutes a night next season. Which breaks down to $6,342/minute. Not bad work if you can get it.

I loved Morrison in college and I wish him luck, but if you’re a “shooter” who can’t really shoot you’re gonna have a tough time staying in the league. He did average 20 PPG and 5 RPG in the Vegas Summer League, so maybe he’s fully recovered from his knee injury and can turn his career around. Who knows…

Anyway, his ridiculous salary inspired me to check out the worst per minute salaries in the NBA last season.  I was going to include “Best” per minute salaries as well, but most of the best value contracts are guys still on their rookie deal.

To give you a frame of reference for post rookie contracts on a minutes played basis, below is the breakdown for King James.  It goes without saying his would be considered a “best case scenario” contract.

$4,715/minute ($2009 Salary: $14.4 Mil, 37 MPG,  3,054 Total Minutes)

Without further adieu, I give you the worst NBA contracts of 2009 based on minutes played. A serious injury is grounds for omission from this list (T-Mac), while being fat and lazy is not (Eddy Curry & Jerome James):

Eddy Curry (Knicks) - $808,333/minute (2009 Salary: $9.7 Mil, 4 MPG, 12 Total Minutes)

Jerome James (Knicks/Bulls) – $620,000/minute ($6.2 Mil, 5 MPG, 10 Total Minutes)

Jermaine O’Neal (Raptors/Heat) – $10,606/minute (2009 Salary: $21.5 Mil, 29 MPG, 2027 Total Minutes)

Marko Jaric (Grizzlies) – $10,859/minute (2009 Salary: $6.57, 11 MPG, 605 Total Minutes)

Matt Carroll (Bobcats/Mavs) – $8,116/minute (2009 Salary: $5 Mil, 11 MPG, 616 Total Minutes)

Brian Cardinal (Twolves) – $6,930/minute (2009 Salary: $6.3 Mil, 14 MPG, 909 Total Minutes)

Bobby Simmons (Nets) – $6,130/minute (2009 Salary: $10.6 Mil, 24 MPG, 1729 Total Minutes)

Adam Morrison (Bobcats/Lakers) - $5,849/minute (2009 Salary: $4.15 Mil, 13 MPG, 711 Total Minutes)

DeSagana Diop (Mavs/Bobcats) – $5,646/minute (2009 Salary: $5.85 Mil, 13 MPG,1036 Total Minutes)

I would be remiss if I didn’t include these three in this post, but since their salaries can’t even be calculated on a dollar per minute basis I threw em down here:

Stephon Marbury (Knicks) – 2009 Salary: $20,840,625, 0 MPG, 0 Total Minutes

Antoine Walker (Grizzlies) – 2009 Salary: $9,052,460, 0 MPG, 0 Total Minutes

Jamaal Tinsley (Pacers) – 2009 Salary: $6,750,000, 0 MPG, 0 Total Minutes

Funny how often these terrible contracts were traded, and in many cases for each other. As everyone knows, it was Isiah Thomas who inked Jerome James, Starbury, and Eddy Curry to long term deals …. But somewhat disturbing is the fact that current Knicks GM Donnie Walsh signed both Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Tinsley to their deals. Not exactly confidence inspiring for Knicks fans….

I’m sure I missed someone, feel free to add anyone you can think of in the comments section.

The Charlotte Bobcats have Absolutely, Positively No Idea What They’re Doing (The Sport Count)
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