The numbers are, in fact, staggering

December 14th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

If you’ve been to SI.com in the past few hours, you’ve seen this bad boy, a complete and accessible look at NBA salaries - who makes what, what teams have the highest payrolls, and who is overpaid or underpaid.

You can peruse the whole thing at your leisure - and I strongly suggest you do - but I’d like to point out a couple quick observations first, just to prove Bill Simmons’ eternal point: NBA GMs are freaking awful.

– This isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but the New York Knicks are truly effed. While most mentions of the Knicks are usually built on generalities, it’s truly fascinating to actually look up and down their payroll to see the dirty specifics of who makes what. For example, in 2009, the Knicks will be paying a combined $42 million for the basketball talents of Renaldo Balkman, Jamal Crawford, Mardy Collins, Eddy Curry, and Quention Richardson. And let’s not even get started on what they’re paying for Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis to fight over the ball.

– I wasn’t surprised to see Kevin Garnett, taking down $21 million a year, as the highest paid player in the league. What I was surprised at - to say the least - is that the 76ers are paying around $20 million a year for the farewell tour of Chris Webber. He’s the second-highest paid player in the league, and he can barely jump!

– Here’s a list of notable (and by notable, I mean overpaid) players that make more than Steve Nash ($10.5 mil), your two-time NBA Most Valuable Player: Raef LaFrentz ($11.5 mil), Theo Ratliff ($11.6 mil), Wally Szczerbiak ($11.7 mil), Kenyon Martin ($12 mil), Eddie Jones ($15.6 mil!), and, oh yeah, Chris Webber.

(By the way, I hope you appreciate the holiday spirit of those million dollar bills above. I think someone was trying to concoct a social commentary about consumerism with those, but I merely found them entertaining and festive.)