Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports: When Heat players receive their first paychecks Thursday, a few will be surprised to see part of their salaries missing. Others will be annoyed. And some will wonder why this had to happen.
Beginning this season, 10 percent of all player salaries will be placed into escrow. Should the players' share of NBA revenues exceed 55 percent, as expected, the escrow collection would be distributed to all 29 teams after the season. That payment is expected to be about $6 million per team.
For Alonzo Mourning, that means giving back nearly $1.9 million of his $18.8 million salary this season. For Eddie Jones, it means losing $1 million of $10.1 million. For Brian Grant, it means parting with $990,000 of $9.9 million. In all, $5.3 million will be withheld from Heat players' paychecks.
Players agreed to the giveback in labor negotiations in January 1999.
``It was too big a concession,'' said Heat swingman Kendall Gill, who will lose $150,000 of his $1.5 million salary. ``I was one of the guys that wanted to hold out longer. A lot of guys now are sorry they signed it.''
At the opposite extreme of the Heat spectrum are Malik Allen, Ernest Brown and Tang Hamilton, who each will lose $33,280 of their $332,800 minimum-wage contracts.
``We're still blessed to have large sums of money,'' Hamilton said. ``Just be thankful for what you've got.''