Bobby Simmons Steals Money

Just out of curiosity I looked up the salary information for the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks. Half surprisingly, I found out the Bucks have a slightly higher payroll than the Pistons. What a bargain those Bucks were. For roughly one million dollars more, they delivered 22 less wins than the Pistons. The Senator must have fun writing some of those payroll checks. No wonder no one will buy the team.

Here's some concrete proof that the NBA is not a properly functioning market. Did you realize Bucks F Bobby Simmons, who logged one more Efficiency point in 32 minutes of Game Four action than Piston G Maurice Evans did in only two (4.0 vs. 3.0), makes nearly eight times as much money as his Piston counterpart Tayshaun Prince? If you landed here from Mars which player would you guess was more valuable? (Prince must have signed a bad contract because the two of them came into the league at the same time, if I'm not mistaken. Yet Prince's contract doesn't run out until this summer, whereas Simmons signed his bonanza second contract last summer -- hence getting a year of earning power over Prince that Prince will never get back.)

If you think that's odd, consider that Simmons also makes nearly twice as much as MVP candidate Chauncey Billups. Oh, Billups must be thrilled with that. Simmons also makes much more money than Pistons F Antonio McDyess. How is that possible? That's so absurd I want to puke.

Simmons can take comfort in this, though; He makes about the same as Pistons G Richard Hamilton, and in this series they've been about equally bad.