We salivate. We remonstrate. We try to explain the unexplainable. We try to put what we just saw not mere human words. We fragment our sentences so that they may each have more emphasis.
But we can never be. We can only marvel. We can only want. We can only dream
So we just give the dream a name.
Kobe Bryant.
(Readers note: All that preceding drivel was satirising every "let's totally tongue a superstar's balls, and do so while writing short incoherent sentences with way too many line breaks" article ever written, and written in this instance due to my own inability to conjure any original thoughts. For those unaware of such a phenomenon, Google the words "Scoop Jackson" or "Bill Plaschke". And then smash your computer up.)
In re-signing for four years and $80 million with the Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki was able to secure himself only the second no-trade clause in the league. The other one belongs to Kobe Bryant. Not many players are eligible for no-trade clauses; to be eligible, a player has to have 8 years of NBA experience, at least four years of which have to have been with the team he's signing with (albeit not necessarily consecutive years). Other eligible players such as Paul Pierce and Tim Duncan could have had them worked into their most recent contracts, but didn't; then again, they didn't really need to. They're not being traded. Not now, not ever.
Congratulations in particular go to Ron Artest, who was the best player in the game. Kobe Bryant may have won the Finals MVP award - which was more than a little awkward in light of his game 7 performance - and Pau Gasol's second half may have turned the game around, but Artest carried more of the team. He kept them in it in the first half, and helped them seal it in the second. And his dagger three pointer, which would have been an absolutely awful shot had it missed, did not miss. Crazy Pills did almost everything right.
There follows a list of all current NBA contracts that feature trade kickers, in contracts valid as of the time of writing, along with the value of them. Note that trade kickers have no expiry date other than the expiration of the contract itself, and that having a percentage listed means that's the percentage of their remaining salary that they will additionally get with the bonus.
In 2000, Kobe Bryant began working on an album. However, after releasing two songs, the album was shelved, perhaps due in part to the song's less than stellar reception. But this did not stop him performing the track "K.O.B.E." live on NBA TV alongside Tyra Banks.
Note: Non-US teams that the player
has played for are, unless stated otherwise, from the top division in
that nation. If league or division name is expressly stated, it's not
the top division. The only exceptions to this are the rare occasions where
no one league is said to be above the other, such as with the JBL/BJ League
split inJapan.
In the event where more than one agent is listed, this is because the
player has more than one agent. This is rather commonplace - a lot of
times, a player will sign with a big agency, and they will have both primary
and secondary agents from within that agency to handle their affairs.
(Where that happens, the primary agent is listed first.) Also, foreign
players tend to have both American and domestic agents. Where the details
of such are known, they are listed.
Creative Financing in the NBA, 2010
