Melo is clearly just not a Winner… he really said he couldn’t even FATHOM doing something that would mean team success at the cost of some short term personal rewards

Edit: Here come the Melo Stans lol… if Melo gives up 100 million on his already near max deal they get to bring in BETTER players with the money saved. Unless u are telling me Melo in the scenario where he leaves money on the table is going to be a worse player than the reality we got (since that is the only way he doesn’t get another max deal after giving up money in the first contract) Melo would have been perfectly able to get the offcourt sponsorships that definitely would have payed out a Hundred mil in earnings. Also LOL at everyone who brought up my job I make over 6 figures in High Finance, live in NYC and the day a Hedge Fund, Goldman Sachs, or JP Morgan give me a C-Suite position that entails my headshot on company ads best fuckin Believe Im taking that hands down regardless of pay cut because the EXPOSURE is the investment.

He also probably can’t understand the criticism when he forced the Knicks to trade for him at the deadline rather than giving them assurance that he will sign as free agent. Knicks gave up a lot for that trade and lost depth

“Aye P, he said that we’d both retire ringless in the NBA”

Many former players mature and demonstrate that when they speak post-career. Others sound exactly the same as they age, learning nothing from life experiences and some self reflection

Melo is in that second category 

Never forget that Chauncey Billups, who played with Melo for years, said he was happier scoring 30 in a loss than scoring 20 in a win.

FWIW — I don’t think there’s anything wrong with players taking the biggest contract they can get. You earned that contract; so you have every right to take it.

But in a sport with a salary cap where contracts are a zero-sum game… the superstar taking a pay cut directly helps the team allocate their finite financial resources to other supporting players. So for Melo say that he doesn’t even understand the “logic or thinking” behind it is absurd.

It’s one thing if Melo said “I wouldn’t take a pay cut.” Fair. It’s a whole different thing to say “I don’t even understand the logic of it.” That’s Melo being Melo. Not able to understand doing something for the TEAM rather than yourself.

I mean realistically, how many athletes would. The reason that Brunson doing it was such a big story is because almost nobody ever does this.

To be fair probably <.1% of NBA players ever would have done it

Brunson has a ring and a bag lol. Melo sounds dumb

Just to have all this money and free time to go be bitter in podcasts.

Melo’s legacy is sitting back and realizing he has no legacy in real time

The Toyota

up until i got a new job this year i was intentionally going to the shops at 10.55pm to get the discounted expiring food. I hate these guys lol

[removed]

Look at this guy with his 5k. Still trying to make old Betsy last another 3 years over here

Today I bought a monster energy drink and it was $4 and I hesitated before ultimately buying it.

Mr moneybags here.

Just imagine the sort of money debates that the people paying these athletes must have

Find a Buick sedan with a 3800 engine in it, like the LeSabre, LeCross, Park Ave, ect. Those range from mid 90s to late 2000s. Those engines are famous for being reliable and comically indestructible. They easily go past 300k miles, are cheap to repair since there are a billion of them, and Buicks are an old brand, both figuratively and literally. Their target market is older people and older people are much more diligent with maintenance. You can easily find them for 5kish. Avoid anything supercharged though.

Toyotas and Hondas are also good options too. You can’t go wrong with the Civic or Corolla/Camry, but avoid the hybrids if you want whats going to last you the longest

I wish I had 5k to debate

Exactly. It’s not a pay cut. He wanted to lock in his money. Guys like Isaiah Thomas and DeMarcus Cousins each lost >$100M because they didn’t have extensions and got injured.

Yup. This exactly. He took the max he could take and insulated himself from risk at the max as well. Any other option would’ve been dumb at the very least and cost him a Brinks truck at the most.

Not that it matters much, but Wemby didn’t take a paycut either. He signed a 25% max extension as that is all that he qualified for. His DPOY and AllNBA status in Year 3 doesn’t mean anything unless he also did them in Year 2, which he did not.

All Wemby did was forgo the opportunity to get the 30% SuperMax in the event that he does qualify after this season, which isn’t a given based on the 65 game rule.

Now, before you all jump on me saying that he did qualify and point out that article/interview from The Athletic … I’ll point out that that tweet and headline are ambigous. The CBA, as written, does not allow stacking two different awards in order to qualify.

Lol

We wants it, we needs it

And Melo wonders why he’s not looked back at fondly despite how talented he was.

Too much money ain’t enough money

99% of players take money over a non guaranteed ring.

This discourse is so annoying because people start acting like it should be expected or is some massive character flaw

Brunson also grew up rich

“Why not take “less” money and give yourself a better chance at winning.”

I don’t think winning is that important in the grand scheme of things, and I wouldn’t be surprised if most guys in the league felt that way. Yes it would be cool to win, but I’m sure most guys care about the money first way more, and I do not fault them for that at all.

At the end of the day, this is just another business/job, winning an NBA championship is not that big of a deal outside of the NBA. Not like they are competing for a nobel peace prize, or to help better the world. It’s a basketball tournament, it is not that important. There are exceptions, a guy like Kawhi/JB/Steph/Bron, where they basically have the key to the city, I think that is worth it. But for most guys in the league, it’s just a job. So if I’m not a top 3-5 player in the league, I probably don’t care too much about winning. Really wonder what the actual consensus is around the league on it.

Yeah I mean the business just wins in the end. They’re not going to gift him more money just because it worked out. But in this case Brunson didn’t really leave money the table. He just didn’t wait the extra season to sign a bigger extension. Not a bad move considering any player could get injured and lose money, just look at IT. 

Dawg he played in the modern era this ain’t a flex.

Tobias Harris has double the career earnings of Vince Carter and Vince was a superstar for a decade

Some of that is also contract inflation. Melo will probably have a longer career being a max player than brunson

Brunson is a special dude tho

He may have had a different aspiration.

Nah. People make money concessions for something else they value all of the time. 

Nah not everyone is money hungry, stop normalizing greed. It’s one of the biggest problems with the modern world

That’s why he didn’t win and Melo is selfish

Melo is selfish and that’s why he didn’t win fr

I mean if a dude isn’t interested in actually winning, why would he be expected to take a pay cut. The comments may seem redundant bc it seems completely unnecessary of Melo to say it. We all knew that.

I think its less Knicks fan doing it and more so to do with lazy reporting. You get more clicks by saying Brunson took a 113M paycut even though that isn’t accurate. He took the max and assuming he opts out on the final deal he really left like 37M on the table.

You say this like he’s being overly greedy but like nobody is sacrificing \(100 mil in the nba by choice. Very few people alive would give up such an insane amount of money to win more basketball games. Even Brunson didn't actually *turn down* an extra \)100 mil lol

It’s true, he had multiple opportunities and chose money every time. The fact he can’t fathom someone choosing legacy and winning over additional generational wealth is hilarious. The idea of sacrifice baffles him.

Don’t be disrespecting puddles like that.

No, just a straight fact

Brunson is probably no worse than the 2nd greatest Knick of all time in most Knick fans eyes, behind Clyde Frazier. Melo was only really in the conversation of greatest Knicks because the Knicks were hot garbage for most of the century and he was the best player they had in the Bad Times.

the owners just pay other people

these comments are so fucking stupid