Rate of inflation
I've had many people ask me about the differences between today's NBA and the one I started covering 21 years ago.
I tell them all the same thing: money. It has changed every aspect of the game -- sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way.
While researching a story I did on the Jazz-Laker playoff series in 1987-88, I came across some numbers that illustrate just how different the NBA is today, compared to the early days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
Check this out.
The salaries for the 12 players on the Utah Jazz roster at the end of the 1987-88 season:
Mark Iavaroni ..... $1,750,000
Mel Turpin .......... $1,000,000
Kelly Tripucka .......$971,000
Karl Malone .......... $835,000
Darrell Griffith ....... $685,000
Mark Eaton ........... $625,000
Thurl Bailey .......... $549,000
Rickey Green ....... $312,000
John Stockton ...... $278,000
Bob Hansen ......... $200,000
Scott Roth .............. $75,000
Bart Kofoed ............ $75,000
Total ..................... $7,355,000
Now, compare those numbers to the salaries, courtesy of hoopshype.com, for the 15 players on this year's Jazz roster:
Andrei Kirilenko ...... $13,709.375
Carlos Boozer ........ $11,593,816
Memo Okur .............. $8,500,000
Matt Harpring ........... $6,000,000
Kyle Korver .............. $4,392,739
Deron Williams ......... $4,010,640
Jarron Collins ........... $2,350,000
Jason Hart ............... $2,300,000
Ronnie Price ............ $1,100,000
Ronnie Brewer ......... $1,715,040
Morris Almond .......... $1,005,960
C.J. Miles .................... $945,610
Kyrylo Fesenko ........... $750,000
Paul Millsap ................ $687,456
Total ..........................$59,060,636
--------
Three quick observations:
-- Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer and Memo Okur make more than the combined total of all the players on the ë87-88 roster.
-- Both in their third season, C.J. Miles makes $110,000 more than Karl Malone was making 20 years ago.
-- Rookie Kyrylo Fesenko makes almost three times as much as John Stockton was making in his first season as the Jazz's full-time starting point guard.
-- Steve Luhm
I tell them all the same thing: money. It has changed every aspect of the game -- sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way.
While researching a story I did on the Jazz-Laker playoff series in 1987-88, I came across some numbers that illustrate just how different the NBA is today, compared to the early days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
Check this out.
The salaries for the 12 players on the Utah Jazz roster at the end of the 1987-88 season:
Mark Iavaroni ..... $1,750,000
Mel Turpin .......... $1,000,000
Kelly Tripucka .......$971,000
Karl Malone .......... $835,000
Darrell Griffith ....... $685,000
Mark Eaton ........... $625,000
Thurl Bailey .......... $549,000
Rickey Green ....... $312,000
John Stockton ...... $278,000
Bob Hansen ......... $200,000
Scott Roth .............. $75,000
Bart Kofoed ............ $75,000
Total ..................... $7,355,000
Now, compare those numbers to the salaries, courtesy of hoopshype.com, for the 15 players on this year's Jazz roster:
Andrei Kirilenko ...... $13,709.375
Carlos Boozer ........ $11,593,816
Memo Okur .............. $8,500,000
Matt Harpring ........... $6,000,000
Kyle Korver .............. $4,392,739
Deron Williams ......... $4,010,640
Jarron Collins ........... $2,350,000
Jason Hart ............... $2,300,000
Ronnie Price ............ $1,100,000
Ronnie Brewer ......... $1,715,040
Morris Almond .......... $1,005,960
C.J. Miles .................... $945,610
Kyrylo Fesenko ........... $750,000
Paul Millsap ................ $687,456
Total ..........................$59,060,636
--------
Three quick observations:
-- Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer and Memo Okur make more than the combined total of all the players on the ë87-88 roster.
-- Both in their third season, C.J. Miles makes $110,000 more than Karl Malone was making 20 years ago.
-- Rookie Kyrylo Fesenko makes almost three times as much as John Stockton was making in his first season as the Jazz's full-time starting point guard.
-- Steve Luhm
2:02 PM
| 
2 Comments:
Considering your post has "inflation" in the title, I'm surprised that you neglected to account for actual inflation.
$100 in 1988 was worth about $180 in today's terms. That means for a meaningful comparison you need to add 80% to all of the 1988 salaries. So the 1988 total payroll was about $13.3M in terms of 2008 dollars.
Stockton's inflation adjusted salary was about $501K. Low by today's standards but it doesn't exactly make him Shoeless Joe Jackson.
I think you also should note that the NBA earns far more revenue now (even accounting for inflation). A statistic I would like to see is a 1988-2008 comparison of the percentage of team revenues taken home by the players.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Both years, our highest paid player is a over-paid small forward.
Post a Comment
<< Home