Big Bucks In Sports

CAVALIER ATTITUDE
$27.8M

That's what Cleveland took on in February as it attempted to complement LeBron James ($13 million) by acquiring Ben Wallace ($15.5 million) and Wally Szczerbiak ($12.3 million).

GOOD BUYS

Kevin Garnett ($23.8 million), Paul Pierce ($16.4 million) and Ray Allen ($16 million) got the big contracts, but bargains like James Posey ($3.2 million), Eddie House ($1.5 million) and P.J. Brown ($226,650) were crucial to winning the NBA title.

ENRICHED
Three Pistons—Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton—made eight figures each last season.

AVERAGE SALARY BY POSITION
With an average pay of $4.26 million, driven by big-ticket players like Kevin Garnett ($23.8 million in '07--08), power forwards evidently exert their greatest power at contract time.

[The following descriptive text appears within a diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

$1M $2M $3M $4M $5M

POWER FORWARD

CENTER