flynn and greene earnings (NBA only)

[Briancuse]

Making $500,000 per year is a pretty good success in my book.

You have to compare that with the alternative. What if he comes back to Syracuse for a year, Improves his stock and his game, makes more money, and is still playing in the league.

 

[Bayside44]

Making $500,000 per year is a pretty good success in my book.

It's not like he's gonna make that money a year / over 20 years. A lot of life left when he's done playing.

 

[Tobias Funke]

You have to compare that with the alternative. What if he comes back to Syracuse for a year, Improves his stock and his game, makes more money, and is still playing in the league.

That is assuming his stock raises. The alternative is much worse. If he comes back and gets injured, or doesn't improve year over year he is one of us overnight. No millions, no playing Basketball in China. He is working at Enterprise Rent a Car getting his new tie sucked up into a vacuum hose for 34K a year. Part of Donte's career involved a foot injury days before he signed a contract with the Nets. That doesn't happen and he still may be in the NBA today. goes to show how fleeting things can be.

Interested to hear how many times the naysayers on hear have turned down instant millions, so they could improve their stock.

 

[Briancuse]

That is assuming his stock raises. The alternative is much worse. If he comes back and gets injured, or doesn't improve year over year he is one of us overnight. No millions, no playing Basketball in China. He is working at Enterprise Rent a Car getting his new tie sucked up into a vacuum hose for 34K a year. Part of Donte's career involved a foot injury days before he signed a contract with the Nets. That doesn't happen and he still may be in the NBA today. goes to show how fleeting things can be.

Interested to hear how many times the naysayers on hear have turned down instant millions, so they could improve their stock.

He was the 28th pick, it wouldn't have been too difficult to improve on that.

 

[RandygoCuse]

I am pretty sure when Donte came to Syracuse he wasn't dreaming of playing in China.

True...Just making the point that he's in a good position financially if he is being well advised. But I agree that he would have been better served by spending another year in college.

 

[Louie and Bouie]

It's not like he's gonna make that money a year / over 20 years. A lot of life left when he's done playing.

Before its all said and done his estimated earnings from professional basketball will have been $7,000,000+ (conservative). Simple math shows that it would take someone 30 years at $233,333 per year to earn that.
So its not about how much he will make over the next 20 years. Its more about how financially smart he is. The amounts stated are enough monies for one to live for a long time depending on investment strategy and budget.

The argument for staying is rarely a sound economic decision. The opportunity cost is a college education which usually can't garner the financial benefit of being a 1st round NBA draft pick. For a lottery pick, the argument loses all of its weight imo.

Interestingly, its the pundits, coaches and fans that argue against guys going and rarely, if ever, the guys who got paid.

 

[bozophobe]

What I'd like to know is, what the additional income from endorsements is from pretty much any professional athlete. Sure, Donte probably doesn't bank 30 mil a la Tiger from Nike, but even a few Boeheim/Hop/Gmac-esque car dealership gigs can add up over a year.

A side note about Donte; I have no connections like many of you do to SU sports people. But I've had a couple. One such group of people fed me knowledge that Donte was returning to SU for a 2nd season. That made my weekend then, and these folks actually some major partying planned. But obviously...

Also, Donte has been known to be charitable with money and time. Guys like that will never get the hostility treatment from me just because they didn't join the 8 digit set.

 

[Ghost]

Ask Donte if he thinks he made the right decision today, I am sure he would admit he made a mistake.

Making 5 mil is great, but that can only last you so long, especially with some of the lifestyles that these players live.

Yeah, but only because the NBA didn't work out as planned. If you made him give back his $5M for the chance to go back in time and play one more year of college, he might not be so willing to do it.

 

[Ghost]

The kid was a mcdonalds all american, he is 6'9 and can shoot the three. I wouldn't call playing in China at the age of 26 a huge success.

So was Kyle Singler.

 

[AZOrange]

Before its all said and done his estimated earnings from professional basketball will have been $7,000,000+ (conservative). Simple math shows that it would take someone 30 years at $233,333 per year to earn that.
So its not about how much he will make over the next 20 years. Its more about how financially smart he is. The amounts stated are enough monies for one to live for a long time depending on investment strategy and budget.

The argument for staying is rarely a sound economic decision. The opportunity cost is a college education which usually can't garner the financial benefit of being a 1st round NBA draft pick. For a lottery pick, the argument loses all of its weight imo.

Interestingly, its the pundits, coaches and fans that argue against guys going and rarely, if ever, the guys who got paid.

Not sure where the 7 mil comes from...but that's gross. Everyone knows that the reason many pro athletes are broke is because (I) they try to lifestyle like the extremely high earners, (ii) all their high earning years are on the front end, and (iii) they don't just get to invest capital, they have to live off it. And lots of them do it without an education. That's the fallacy of pro sports. Not everyone makes Lebron money. A million at 26 is good, but what will they do at 35? 40?

 

[perdurabo]

Not sure where the 7 mil comes from...but that's gross. Everyone knows that the reason many pro athletes are broke is because (I) they try to lifestyle like the extremely high earners, (ii) all their high earning years are on the front end, and (iii) they don't just get to invest capital, they have to live off it. And lots of them do it without an education. That's the fallacy of pro sports. Not everyone makes Lebron money. A million at 26 is good, but what will they do at 35? 40?

A lot of lottery winners end up bankrupt or worse. Would you tear up your lotto ticket because it's frontloaded? Why not just require all frosh to major in business at the Whitman?

 

[AZOrange]

A lot of lottery winners end up bankrupt or worse. Would you tear up your lotto ticket because it's frontloaded? Why not just require all frosh to major in business at the Whitman?

I'm not saying tear it up, I'm just saying let's not mischaracterize what these guys made. Everyone is talking about the value of going to the league. Is it a great deal for some, yeah. But for others the degree/experience might have been more worth it.

They don't need business degrees. They need basic financial skills taught to them.

 

[Full_Rebar]

It would be great if the NCAA would relax some of its rules to allow more in terms of Life Skills education for freshmen especially. Financial literacy, public speaking, etc. would be a better fit than taking some joke elective classes

 

[Timonen]

Not sure where the 7 mil comes from...but that's gross. Everyone knows that the reason many pro athletes are broke is because (I) they try to lifestyle like the extremely high earners, (ii) all their high earning years are on the front end, and (iii) they don't just get to invest capital, they have to live off it. And lots of them do it without an education. That's the fallacy of pro sports. Not everyone makes Lebron money. A million at 26 is good, but what will they do at 35? 40?

You realize that the vast majority of folks who went to college make 40-50k to start their careers, right? It somehow makes sense to tell the guy who's made millions that it's not enough? They can have fallback gigs when retired that equal the typical person's salary. They can have big annuities. If the issue is financial planning, that's very different than the issue of whether they should accept the multi million dollar lump sum in the first place. Dante is in a more enviable financial position than 99.99% of people on the planet. That's enough for me to not judge and tell him what he did wrong.

 

[RF2044]

Making $500,000 per year is a pretty good success in my book.

Seriously--think about it. While it might be "disappointing" that Greene didn't sustain an NBA career, let's just assume for a second that he never makes it back to the bigs, but is able to play 10 more years at the salary described above [it could be more--just drawing a line in the sand around a nice, round number].

$500K for 10 more years. Not bad, no matter how you slice it. And if Green is willing to play abroad, he could certainly play for a lot longer than 10 years.

Talk about a nice way to set yourself up. Success. Even though it might not have been in the NBA.

 

[BostonOrange]

flynn 9.5 million
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players//flynnjo01.html

greene 5 million
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/greendo01.html

of course if they were stars that would look like chump change

what would flynn have made the last few years had the hip injury happened here?

greene is the biggest draft blunder we can think of and he still hit the lottery

One thing that has changed is the salary scale. #28 pick is now worth 1.7 guaranteed total. Last two years are team options. Not to say they wouldn't have picked up donte it's short money

 

[Ghost]

One thing that has changed is the salary scale. #28 pick is now worth 1.7 guaranteed total. Last two years are team options. Not to say they wouldn't have picked up donte it's short money

He had a pretty decent sophomore campaign, I imagine they would have picked it up.

 

[AZOrange]

You realize that the vast majority of folks who went to college make 40-50k to start their careers, right? It somehow makes sense to tell the guy who's made millions that it's not enough? They can have fallback gigs when retired that equal the typical person's salary. They can have big annuities. If the issue is financial planning, that's very different than the issue of whether they should accept the multi million dollar lump sum in the first place. Dante is in a more enviable financial position than 99.99% of people on the planet. That's enough for me to not judge and tell him what he did wrong.

I'm not judging what they do. I don't really care what they choose. I'm just saying that people that view athletics as a gold mine at the cost of a degree probably have not done a lot of back end analysis on careers and earnings. The degree is basically valued at nothing.

 

[AZOrange]

Seriously--think about it. While it might be "disappointing" that Greene didn't sustain an NBA career, let's just assume for a second that he never makes it back to the bigs, but is able to play 10 more years at the salary described above [it could be more--just drawing a line in the sand around a nice, round number].

$500K for 10 more years. Not bad, no matter how you slice it. And if Green is willing to play abroad, he could certainly play for a lot longer than 10 years.

Talk about a nice way to set yourself up. Success. Even though it might not have been in the NBA.

That's the crux isn't it? If he sets himself up.

 

[RF2044]

That's the crux isn't it? If he sets himself up.

True. But there are lots of people doing more than getting by on high 5 figure / low 6 figure salaries. If you aren't living frivolously / unnecessarily extravagantly, you can have a hell of a life at $500K, and position yourself well for the future.

Here's hoping Donte is smart with his money.

 

[perdurabo]

I'm not judging what they do. I don't really care what they choose. I'm just saying that people that view athletics as a gold mine at the cost of a degree probably have not done a lot of back end analysis on careers and earnings. The degree is basically valued at nothing.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...majors-are-the-biggest-waste-of-money/359653/





Here are the eleven schools in PayScale's data with a 20-year net return worse than negative-$30,000. In other words: these are the schools where PayScale determined that not going to college is at least $30,000 more valuable than taking the time to pay for and graduate from one of these schools.


It gets worse. The self-reported earnings of art majors from Murray State are so low that after two decades, a typical high school grad will have out-earned them by nearly $200,000. Here are the degrees (i.e.: specific majors at specific schools) with the lowest 20-year net return, according to PayScale. They are all public schools: Bold names are for in-state students.

 

[AZOrange]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...majors-are-the-biggest-waste-of-money/359653/





Here are the eleven schools in PayScale's data with a 20-year net return worse than negative-$30,000. In other words: these are the schools where PayScale determined that not going to college is at least $30,000 more valuable than taking the time to pay for and graduate from one of these schools.


It gets worse. The self-reported earnings of art majors from Murray State are so low that after two decades, a typical high school grad will have out-earned them by nearly $200,000. Here are the degrees (i.e.: specific majors at specific schools) with the lowest 20-year net return, according to PayScale. They are all public schools: Bold names are for in-state students.

I've never heard of most of these places but I'm pretty sure dontes ROI would have been pretty good given that he was going for free.

 

[AZOrange]

True. But there are lots of people doing more than getting by on high 5 figure / low 6 figure salaries. If you aren't living frivolously / unnecessarily extravagantly, you can have a hell of a life at $500K, and position yourself well for the future.

Here's hoping Donte is smart with his money.

If he's smart he figures out how to coach.

I just think the latter part is so difficult. I had many friends making that in real estate out here and when the market went boom, they were bk in 2 years. It's amazing how when you make more u spend more without thinking. I sock money away but it's a tremendous burden on family etc.

 

[RF2044]

If he's smart he figures out how to coach.

I just think the latter part is so difficult. I had many friends making that in real estate out here and when the market went boom, they were bk in 2 years. It's amazing how when you make more u spend more without thinking. I sock money away but it's a tremendous burden on family etc.

True. Very important to live within your means and not overspend.

 

[pfister1]

I have no more interest in playing basketball in China than I have in being shot with a flaming arrow.

That is you. There are lots of ex pats living all over the world making nice scratch in lots of different career fields, why not basketball??