[the_watcher]

It was the worst negotiation in sports history, yes. But far worse contracts have been signed. A bad NBA contract (some that obviously bad at the moment of signing) can easily pay $30M in 2 years to a player who essentially doesn't play at all. Which the teams then pay to dump on other teams (the NBA salary cap creates a fascinating market).

[sokoloff]

I don't see how it was even a particularly bad contract, let alone the "worst in sports history".

Borrowing money at 8% is a pretty reasonable commercial lending rate for the time (30-year fixed mortgages were only a couple points lower).

So, they took out a $5.9MM loan from Bonilla to pay Bonilla, accrued interest for 11 years without making any payments, and then started paying it off on a 25 year amortization schedule, all at 8% interest.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wWMBl9YsLfjC3A6A_ZI6...

[VWWHFSfQ]

It was bad for Bobby Bonilla.

[sokoloff]

Given that he had ample access to professional advisers and voluntarily entered into the agreement, I think he would have disagreed with that assessment at the time. (I think it was a fairly balanced contract, not outlandishly good nor bad for either side, with an interest rate lower than the Mets' likely marginal cost of capital and higher than Bonilla could have secured on a deferred annuity.)

[the_watcher]

I mean, he turned $5.9M into $30M, then made $1.1M in the time he would have made $5.9M. Doesn't seem like that bad a deal for him.

[thinkcontext]

My favorite is the NBA agreeing to pay a percentage of TV revenue in perpetuity to the owners of the ABA team Spirits of St. Louis when the leagues merged. The NBA gave the other ABA teams that they weren't taking $3M but the Spirits held out. The NBA paid out $300M before finally buying them out for $500M in 2014.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2014/01/07/the-nba-f...

[shmuels2]

Interesting twist: those owners also lost a heap of money with Madoff!

[sambroner]

How'd you make your money?

> Oh, I own a basketball team.

Which?

> The St. Louis Spirits.

?!?!

[bluedino]

Imagine if a programming union formed with salary caps, max contracts, programmer-demanded trades, and franchise tags.

[the_watcher]

Don't forget trade exceptions, luxury taxes, unlikely incentives, waivers, stretch provisions... This would actually be entertaining to model out , at least to... the small handful of people whose interests collide in the Venn Diagram of tech and NBA salary cap nonsense.

[walshemj]

MM so you'd get star programmers moving to Holland to work for PSV Eindhoven (To take advantage of the Bosman ruling) and Philips would be come a challenger to Google.

PSV Eindhoven started out as Phillips employees team