If I'm the guy who owns his draft rights, I see plenty about Glenn Robinson to like. Nice kid, big body, sweet smile, hard worker, good attitude, great shooting touch.
That said, I'm not sure I like him enough, or know enough about him, to fork over $109 million. And neither, apparently, does Herb Kohl. Good for him.Responding to reports that his prized rookie would be seeking a contract covering 13 years and the aforementioned $109 million, this is how the Wisconsin senator, who also happens to own the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks,
responded: "I was thinking of telling Mr. Robinson, `I'll tell you what,"' Kohl said during a break from his re-election campaign the other day. "`I'll take your contract and you can have my franchise."'
Maybe you thought the numbers on the deals pro teams have been handing out have lost their ability to shock. And especially to shock someone like Kohl, who, besides signing off on some of those deals, knows only too well that his full-time employer - the U.S. government - has paid defense contractors hundreds of dollars for a wrench and thousand more for a toilet.
Think again.
Whether it's the number of zeroes, the fact that it's more than the Milwaukee franchise is valued at, or even that a guy nicknamed "Penny" - a.k.a. Anfernee Hardaway - has become bold enough to ask the Orlando Magic for a similar amount, the bells and whistles are going off in NBA front-offices across the land.
In recent days, Philadelphia 76ers owner Harold Katz told one newspaper, "I don't think $100 million will ever be reached in a starting contract," and Atlanta Hawks president Stan Kasten told another, "I still can't make my pencil write that number."
The way things are shaping up, he and his cohorts may not have to. At least not right away. Robinson's salary demand is so outrageous, so out of proportion to what he's accomplished, and so out of line with what accomplished players are making, that it's practically making the argument for cost containment all by itself.
There have been a half-dozen such arguments made in the NBA over the past year, dating to Charlotte owner Spencer Stolpen's mystifying decision to rework Larry Johnson's contract, from a 6-year, $20 million deal, into one that covers 12 years for a tidy $84 million.
But Robinson's request is so loud, and so raw, that it appears to be disturbing the people who will wind up playing alongside and against him. Such established stars as Charles Barkley and Karl Malone have been grumbling about the wild sums being handed out to relative newcomers and their ranks are swelling daily.
And that, said one NBA insider who requested anonymity, could turn out to be a very encouraging development at a time when the league is trying to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with its players. Imagine have the players draw the line on sanity for you; having done that with a salary cap once, NBA executives are not beyond hoping they might do so again.
"More than anything else out there, the Robinson case makes an argument for some kind of balance between what the established stars get and what the rookies get.
"Let's face it. Everybody, the players and the owners, have been on a very profitable ride. And if you look at how much money is in the pool we're proposing to share with the players, you're going to see a lot. ...
"But it's not unlimited, and it's not going to grow the way it has the last few years forever. What some of the veterans are starting to realize is that every dollar that comes out of that pool for new players means less for
them. "In Robinson's case, that means an awful lot. . . . I'm not allowed to use the words `rookie salary cap,' but this sure sounds like a good argument for one. And remember," he concluded, "who controls the union."
Let's say, for the sake of the argument, that the Big Dog turns out to be just as productive in his rookie season as he was at Purdue last season, when he led the nation with a 30.3 scoring average and collected 10.1 rebounds.
And let's say that he plays every minute of every one of the Bucks' 82 games next season, something less likely. And even that he throws in the rebounds for free.
At Robinson's asking price, the Bucks would be shelling out $102,251 per game, $2,130 per minute and $3,383 per point. For 13 years.
Now, try and calculate how underpaid Robinson would be at the end of that stellar career if a rookie came into the league every season trying to up the ante by as much as he has.