By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News, 2024-05-25 15:36:46
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
文班亚马不需要纽约或者洛杉矶就能成为联盟中最显眼的、最有价值的球星之一。他在圣安东尼奥就能成为那样的球星，甚至成为一位亿万富翁。
十年后，马刺队可能在市中心的一个新球馆打球，正好位于阿拉莫圆顶体育场和美洲之塔之间。为了建造这个球馆，有人需要拿出大约 10 亿美元。
这相当于四座冰霜银行中心。
换句话说？
这可能是文班亚马一个人的身价。
如果未来大约 12 年里马刺队向他们的球队球员支付一笔等于体育场建设项目价值的薪水，那么马刺队永远都不会对此抱怨。事实上，他们会认为自己很幸运。
如果你嘲笑一个小市场球队在球员 30 多岁之前就让他成为亿万富翁，这个想法曾经是不可想象的？那就回顾一下上周的几条新闻。
首先，文班亚马获得了足够的选票，让他在作为一名新秀入选全明星的评选中取得了五名的成绩。
其次，《体育商业杂志》报道，NBA 正在“完善”与迪斯尼/ESPN、NBA 和亚马逊的媒体转播权合同，届时联盟每年将获得超过 70 亿美元的收入。
将这两个发展放在一起，我们可以相当轻松地预测以下内容：
在文班亚马职业生涯的第六年时，当他需要入选两届全明星阵容或赢得年度最佳防守球员奖项才能有资格获得“超级顶薪”续约合同时，他几乎肯定能够满足获得续约资格的标准。并且由于联盟的工资体系准备在新的转播协议下大幅增加，文班亚马的“超级顶薪”中的金额将会非常巨大。
会达到多巨大？
请想象一下是 1 亿美元。
每年。
这将能购买很多乐高积木。
数学是这样计算的：根据联盟的集体谈判协议，工资帽每年最多可增加 10%。如果迪斯尼/ESPN、NBC 和亚马逊支付报告中所说的金额，那么这将确保工资帽从 2025-2026 年开始每年增加最高金额。
正如 Spotrac 的 Keith Smith 所指出的，这将使工资帽在 2028-2029 年超过 2 亿美元。并且由于“超级顶薪”续约合同允许球队从工资帽的 35% 开始续约其自己的球员，这意味着如果在 2028 年签署一份为期五年的合同，那么起薪可能为每年 7200 万美元，工资在第五年会涨到 9500 万美元。
当文班亚马有资格在 2031 年签署一份“超级顶薪”续约合同时会怎样？那份为期五年的合同的价格总额大约应该是 5.29 亿美元。将这部分金额加到他的新秀合同（四年，5520 万美元，很划算）和最大的允许新秀合同续约金额（五年，3.16 亿美元）中，那么他的收入将达到 9 亿美元左右。
在 33 岁时。
他大概会让自己至少再打一年球才退休，这样他的收入就会达到十位数。
这些数字很惊人，但重要的是：它们不会让文班亚马离开圣安东尼奥。相反，这些数字比以往任何时候都更有可能让这位 NBA 门面球星留在联盟最小的媒体市场之一。毕竟，如果一位球员单凭薪水就能在这里赚到 10 亿美元，那么他真的需要多少额外的营销优势才能转会到洛杉矶或纽约呢？
由于“超级顶薪”体系的存在，马刺队将能够提供给文班亚马比湖人队或尼克斯队在自由球员中提供的续约金额更高的续约价。并且由于马刺队将获得巨额媒体转播权交易中的一部分收入——更不用说与雇用世界上最知名的运动员之一相关的所有曝光和收入——他们将能够负担得起。
如果到 2036 年，他们支付给文班亚马的钱比建造一座市中心球馆的费用还多？那么以霍尔特家族为首的球队老板会欣喜若狂。他们不可能不获利。
这里唯一的问题是文班亚马即将到来的这笔横财意味着马刺队必须明智地管理他们工资表的其他组成部分。他们将毫无疑问尽可能多地支付给他们的法国中锋。但工资帽会限制他们为他的队友所花的钱。并且现在某个像特雷·杨这样一时冲动的球队收购可能会让四年或五年后的事情变得很困难，届时文班亚马赢得总冠军的窗口应该会大开。
所以如果马刺队在本休赛期不挥霍金钱？那并不是因为他们不愿意花钱。
他们准备让一个来自法国的瘦小伙子成为一名亿万富翁。
并且他们希望确保一个如此富有的人至少拥有一些像样的珠宝。
原文如下：
Who wants to be a billionaire? How Victor Wembanyama can do it in SA
[Image]
Victor Wembanyama doesn’t need New York or Los Angeles to make him into one of the league’s most visible and valuable stars. He can be that and more, even a billionaire, right here in San Antonio.
A decade from now, the Spurs might play in a new downtown arena, right between the Alamodome and the Tower of the Americas. To build it, somebody will need to shell out about $1 billion.
That’s the equivalent of four Frost Bank Centers.
Or to put it another way?
It’s the potential price of one Victor Wembanyama.
If the Spurs wind up sending their franchise player a stadium construction project’s worth of paychecks over the next dozen years or so, you’ll never hear them complain about it. In fact, they’ll consider themselves lucky.
And lest you scoff at the once-unthinkable idea of a small-market franchise turning a superstar into a billionaire before he hits his mid-30s? Consider a couple of news items from this past week.
First, Wembanyama secured enough votes to put him within five spots of an All-NBA selection as a rookie.
Second, Sports Business Journal reported that the NBA is “formalizing” media rights contracts with Disney/ESPN, NBA and Amazon that will pay the league more than $7 billion combined per year.
Put these two developments together, and here’s what we can project, rather comfortably:
By year six of his career, when Wembanyama needs to have made a couple of All-NBA teams or have won a Defensive Player of the Year award to become eligible for a “supermax” extension, it’s a pretty safe bet he’ll meet the criteria. And because of how the league’s salary structure is set to explode under the new broadcast deal, the dollar figures in Wembanyama’s “supermax” are going to be enormous.
How enormous?
Try $100 million.
Per year.
That’ll buy a lot of Legos.
The math breaks down like this: Under the league’s collective bargaining agreement, the salary cap can increase by a maximum of 10% per year. If Disney/ESPN, NBC and Amazon pay as much as reported, that will ensure the cap increases the maximum amount every year, beginning in 2025-26.
As noted by Keith Smith of Spotrac, that would put the cap on track to exceed $200 million in 2028-29. And since a “supermax” extension allows a team to re-sign its own player starting at 35% of the cap, that means a five-year deal signed in 2028 could start at $72 million per year, with raises taking the salary up to $95 million in year five.
And when Wembanyama becomes eligible to sign a “supermax” extension that starts in 2031? The price of that five-year contract should total about $529 million. Add that to his rookie deal (a bargain at four years for $55.2 million) and the largest allowable rookie extension (five years for $316 million), and he’ll be at almost $900 million.
By age 33.
Presumably, he’ll give himself at least another year before retirement, to hit the ten-figure mark.
The numbers are obscene, but here’s the important part: They don’t price Wembanyama out of San Antonio. On the contrary, they make it more likely than ever that a star who becomes the face of the NBA will stay in one of the league’s smallest media markets. After all, if a player can make $1 billion in salary alone here, how much does he really need the marginal marketing advantages that might come with a move to Los Angeles or New York?
Because of the “supermax” system, the Spurs will be able to offer Wembanyama more to stay than the Lakers or Knicks ever will in free agency. And because the Spurs get a chunk of that huge media-rights deal — not to mention all of the exposure and revenue associated with employing one of the most recognizable athletes in the world — they’ll be able to afford it.
If, by 2036, they’ve paid Wembanyama more money than it cost to build a downtown arena? The franchise’s owners, headed by the Holt family, will be ecstatic. There’s no way they won’t come out ahead.
The only catch here is that Wembanyama’s looming windfall means the Spurs have to be smart about how they manage the rest of their payroll. They will pay their French center as much as they’re allowed to, no questions asked. But the salary cap will limit what they can spend on his teammates. And one ill-advised impulse acquisition of somebody like Trae Young now could make things difficult four or five years from now, when Wembanyama’s ring-winning window should be opening wide.
So if the Spurs don’t splurge this offseason? It won’t be because they’re not willing to spend.
They’re prepared to make a skinny kid from France a billionaire.
And they want to make sure a guy that rich at least ends up with some decent jewelry.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News