With so many families struggling these days to make ends meet, new Los Angeles Clippers forward Josh Smith may have chosen an awkward way of introducing himself to his new fans. Smith told the media that it will be a bit harder on his family to make ends meet but that they were persevere with his salary. The Smith family will be somehow struggling on a $7 million salary.
Smith has succeeded in creating the type of problem that Hillary Clinton created for herself in claiming that she and Bill were “dead broke” after leaving the White House and struggled to pay things like tuition. He is not alone in the sport however. Latrell Sprewell once referred to a $30 million contract from the Minnesota Timberwolves as “insulting.”
Smith is an ex-Piston and Rocket, who will receive a $1.5 million contract for the 2015-16 season plus $5.4 million from a prior deal with the Detroit Pistons for a grand total of $6.9 million next year. After crunching the numbers, Smith said “At the end of the day, you know, I do have a family. So it is going to be a little harder on me this year. But I’m going to push through it, you know. … I made a decision for me and my family.”
Just for the record, the average salary in California is $51,910.
I remember when Americans played in the National Basketball Association.
Funny. Freed slaves did not legally immigrate or properly negotiate the immigration process. They have existed under an unconstitutional amendment illegally rammed through during Lincoln’s dictatorial “Reign of Terror.”
Perhaps this “illegal immigrant” should be deported to Liberia or Zimbabwe to ply his trade at local rates.
Wow! We could have Americans back in the NBA!
What would that be like?
OMG Squeek. I feel like a Medici commissioning a poet. Getting “grill” and strippers in there shows you know the culture well.
@NickS
Like it says in the good book! Sooo, let’s see. . .poor old Josh is having to scrape by on a measly seven mil . .
Bare Necessities???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a very sour Clipper,
Who mouth needed some kind of zipper!
He was close, with his grill,
And his bling, but yet still—
He was too broke to hire a good stripper!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
If Donald Sterling still owned the Clippers this narcissist could have called it “slave wages.”
Good poem, Squeek. I would have worked “bling” in, but I am not a poet..just sittin’ in the peanut gallery.
Oh, let me see if I can rouse myself from this summer lethargy enough to do an Irish Poem! So, this guys gets millions of bucks for playing a game.
Nothing But Nut???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a Clipper named Josh,
Who said with all kinds of panache-
“Seven million bucks,
Is a wage that just sucks!”
It’s hard work sinking buckets, my gosh!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Founding masters
Haha us? Has this blog become a cult with necessary requisite beliefs to enter? Oh, that’s right, it was that way when it was established.
Now go back to getting on your knees for the jingoistic scholars and our fa ding masters… They love it, but not as much as you. So enjoy.
Haha but we shouldn’t mention what the owners and board members of Fortune 500 companies in the United states say about wealth… Only black ball players… This site, in a nutshell. Thought it had potential.
chipkellyshouldgoogleleibniz – things must be slow at Flowers for Algernon for you to come over here to troll us.
I don’t begrudge athletes or owners getting rich. I do detest taxpayers paying for stadiums. A maid working 2 jobs to support her family has to pay for a stadium for millionaire players and billionaire owners. Despicable. Peter Ueberroth was commish of baseball until he said owners should pay for new ballparks, not taxpayers. He was gone in 60 seconds.
Here’s (one of) the problems with young athletes: they burn through their money and their career only lasts a handful of years, a decade at most.
I recall my university had a conference for its student athletes. Retired professional players spoke and strongly urged them to educate themselves so they would be financially savvy. A pro can have a career ending injury at any time, and even in the best case scenario, he’ll age out of the game before he knows it. Too many of them burn through their money on wasteful spending and sycophants, and then they have nothing to fall back on. It’s even worse if they drop out of college or never attended, to go pro.
Combine a lack of financial conservatism, with the arrogance and bluster of a young athlete given money and fame before you can handle it, and you get the subject of this article. One day, he’ll look back on this moment as an older man and, hopefully, cringe.
Someone should start a Go-Fund-Me account for him.
barkindog
Josh is the new Jeb
He is going to have to order Ramen noodles by the case.
Anyone notice how many dorks are around now with the first name Josh. Obama has some PR guy named Josh. There is a Josh on every news channel. There was a rash of kids named Josh thirty years or so ago. These things come in bunches. Caitlyn is probably a name which will go off the popular list for baby girls.
The writer is missing significant part of the story which would shed more light on just how ridiculous Smith’s comments were.
When Josh Smith’s contract in Detroit was bought out, it was stretched out to $5.4M/year for several years after this year. He can count on a guaranteed +$20M or so AFTER this year even if he does not play again after this year.
Some communist once said that religion is the opiate of the masses. Well, there is more than one drug available to placate the masses. Gladiators or athletes making tens of millions of dollars and providing filler for the tabloids, actors and other performers dragging their sorry butts across the media, and back again over stories so mundane that a sixth grader would be shunned from the group for discussing, and totally replaceable so called leaders sometimes making a hundred million plus a year are the new royalty. The peasants used to get to see this crowd on special occasions. Today they are everywhere with which to be identified and to some degree owned. Our family sends out our sympathies to Josh Smith and his mob. We fully realize and feel how demeaning it is not to be able to buy that new Ferrari every year. Now excuse me while I put new ball joints on my truck.
Don’t be jelly.
If he, Josh Smith, thinks that times are tough now, then he is in for a rude awakening for the 2016-17 season when he’ll probably be making in the 6 digit salary range or he might not be on a roster at all.
My family was having a reunion on Martha’s Vineyard back in the 90’s. We were waiting in the bar for our table to get readied. In walked Warren Spahn w/ a group of guys on the island for their annual fishing trip. I recognized the winningest southpaw of all time immediately. My bride was like a little kid. She exclaimed, “OMG, Warren Spahn, I got off of school when you pitched in the World Series.” Spahn smiled and said, “Well, you must be from Wisconsin.” This Hall of Fame pitcher and WW2 hero was an engaging, nice man. There were 8 kids in our group and he spoke w/ all of them, making them promise to make their beds daily. I bought Spahn a Heineken and we talked baseball. He wasn’t a resentful man. After all, he never made nearly the salary players get today. He did lament how todays athletes are disconnected. When he played in the 40’s-60’s, Spahn worked during the offseason to help support his family. That grounded nature was evident in this elderly man decades later. I wanted to balance off the entitled nature of Mr. Smith.