For Love Of The Game

The salary cap for the 2007-08 NBA season will be set at $55,630,000.

The luxury tax threshold will be $67,865,000.

Any team that passes that threshold will be assessed a dollar for dollar penalty by the NBA.

Those numbers were reached after an audit of league finances and were set late Tuesday night by the players association and the league office. It will be the number teams use beginning Wednesday when a 10-day moratorium on free agent signing ends.

The New York Knicks have the league’s highest payroll at $88,285,521 while the Charlotte Bobcats have the league’s lowest payroll at $35,269,897.

Kevin Garnett, a man who has never won an NBA championship will make $22,000,000 next season.

The Portland Trailblazers recently bought out Steve Francis’ contract for $30,000,000 so that he wouldn’t play for them.

In a day and age of ever increasing ticket prices, $175 authentic jerseys, and millionaires who play games to “feed their families” it’s refreshing to take look at the mentality of two of the greatest champions in the history of sport:  Michael Jordan and Bill Russell.

 “No matter what happens in this business of basketball, if you didn’t get paid a dime you still would play the game of basketball.  Somewhere there’s a kid working.  He won’t skip any steps, he will learn from my example just as I have learned from others.  There will be a player greater than me.” - Michael Jordan

 “There has not ever been, and never will be, a team that had as much fun as we did,” said Russell. “When I was in the Celtics locker room, I could not go to heaven, because anyplace but there was a step down. That is how much I enjoyed being on that team and being with those guys.”  - Bill Russell

As overwhelmingly skilled and competitive as Russell and Jordan were it’s this type of mentality that separated them from their peers and made them the champions they were.

Russell savored every moment that he played basketball.  MJ played with the same type of passion.

There may be a player greater than MJ or a team more successful than Bill Russell’s Celtics but they will have taken the same approach. 

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill

Great players and great teams don’t play for celebrity or a paycheck - they play for love of the game.