OK, so immediately upon hearing of the Von Wafer signing made official by Olympiacos and Euroleague representatives, you knew the Angelopoulos brothers had overpaid at least slightly for the 24-year-old NBA jumper.
But then Wafer went on Houston’s FOX affiliate station KRIV-TV to say a few choice words about the contact that explained the not-so-mysterious allure of playing professional ball in Greece these days.
Start with the pay raise. Associated Press and the like are hyping up this number a bit claiming Wafer’d “signed a two-year, $10 million deal,” the slightly more sober source Hoops Hype explains that the “contract with Olympiakos [is] worth $4.2 million without taxes – approximately $10 million gross” – nearly making it seem as though the real winner in this deal is the Greek government…
Still, given the generally-accepted figure of $800,000 as Wafer’s salary with the Houston Rockets in 2008-09, that’s a literally awesome raise – by my calculations, it’s a salary jack of at least 162.5% depending on how much in tax monies his clever accountant was able to dodge for him.
And not only will Wafer be racking up about double his money, Wafer may opt out of playing for Olympiacos for 2010-11, provided he goes to an NBA team.
Talk about your win-wins: Wafer has gone from a now-marginal Rockets team to certain Euroleague favorites, snags a massive pay increase, and essentially gets a season to show the American teams what he can do as a starter in hopes of signing a megadeal in one year. Not bad for a guy who bummed around in D-League and on NBA benches for four years…
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