Top NBA team payrolls

Bill Sullivan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:00:04 +0000

When Mavericks owner Mark Cuban threatened to turn over the club’s roster after an embarrassing loss to the shorthanded Oklahoma City Thunder, he had plenty of reason to be peeved.

Three years ago, his team lost in the NBA Finals. Two years ago, the Mavericks posted the league’s best regular season record before an historic first-round collapse against Golden State. In 2008, Dallas finished seventh in the Western Conference and lost in the first round to New Orleans.

Progress? Hardly. And mediocrity has not come cheap. According to HoopsHype.com, Cuban is carrying the second largest payroll in the league for the 2008-09 season…and for a club in danger of missing the playoffs entirely.

Which front office is shelling out the biggest bucks? Who is getting quality, and who is getting fleeced?

Here’s the list:

1. New York Knicks: $94,368,270

2. Dallas Mavericks: $92,758,122

3. Cleveland Cavaliers: $90,329,718

4. Portland Trail Blazers: $80,600,059

5. Boston Celtics: $79,659,701

6. Houston Rockets: $75,231,879

7. Los Angeles Lakers: $75,255,408

8. Phoenix Suns: $75,245,418

9. Sacramento Kings: $74,613,915

10. Toronto Raptors: $72,782,229

To see the rest of the list, visit HoopsHype.com.

Sports’ Worst Losing Streaks

Bill Sullivan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:56:21 +0000

With a promising season ending in all-too-familiar defeat, the Chicago Cubs spend another winter pondering the might-have-beens. Swept out of the National League Division Series by the lightly-regarded Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs will go yet another year without claiming their first World Series title since 1908.

The denizens of Wrigleyville, however, are hardly alone in their misery. Plenty of other sports franchises and their faithful fans have endured impressive runs of futility.

Forbes set out to identify the big losers — lovable and otherwise — of the jock kingdom. Here’s part of what they came up with:

– Los Angeles Clippers: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1993-2005)

– Golden State Warriors: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1994-2006)

– Detroit Tigers: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1994-2005)

– Milwaukee Brewers: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1993-2004)

– Chicago Blackhawks: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1946-60)

– Detroit Red Wings: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1973-87)

– Detroit-Fort Wayne Pistons: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1956-70)

– Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1983-96)

– Philadelphia-Kansas City Athletics: 15 consecutive losing seasons (1953-67)

– Vancouver Canucks: 15 consecutive losing seasons (1976-91)

– Sacramento Kings: 15 consecutive losing seasons (1983-98)

– Philadelphia Phillies: 16 consecutive losing seasons (1933-48)

– Pittsburgh Pirates: 16 consecutive losing seasons (1993-2008)

To read about these epic losers, and to see a slideshow, visit Forbes.com.

GetListy » Sacramento Kings

Top NBA team payrolls

Sports’ Worst Losing Streaks