In July, free agent Carmelo Anthony ended months of speculation and opted to return to the New York Knicks on a new five-year deal. While the seven-time All-Star claimed to be interested in winning and not money (only to say later he doesn't think the Knicks will win a title this season), the fact is that he will make more than $124 million over the life of his new contract, substantially more than what competing suitors could have paid. If Melo did indeed return to New York primarily to pursue a ring, that cash should serve as a pretty nice consolation prize in case he's not successful.
It now appears that Anthony will get the bulk of that money even sooner than imagined. According to a report from Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal, Melo will take half of his contract as an advance payment:
New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony is getting advance payment of more than $62 million from the five-year contract he signed last month, according to people familiar with the matter.
The advance for $62,032,340—or 50% of his $124 million-plus deal—is the maximum Anthony can take this soon under league rules. And in terms of sheer dollar amounts, it is surely among the largest advance payouts a player has taken in NBA history. Only Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal, Kevin Garnett and Rashard Lewis have ever signed contracts for larger amounts.
Anthony's advance will have no impact on the Knicks' salary-cap situation. It simply changes the timing of when the 30-year-old will receive his biggest paychecks over the course of the contract.
Herring goes on to note that Anthony's Knicks teammate J.R. Smith, also a client of agent Leon Rose, took half of his three-year, nearly $18-million deal as an advance payment last summer. Kobe Bryant also chose to take an advance payment of $24.3 million from the two-year extension he signed last fall. Yet Melo's advance is substantially greater and at least the largest such payment to be reported in NBA history, if not the largest altogether.
In the broader world of financial planning, it makes sense to take that advance payment, because Melo can invest the money himself now and theoretically take advantage of those payouts sooner than he otherwise could. Additionally, Anthony has shown himself to be interested in investing via his new venture capital firm, which was announced in July shortly after his contract was finalized. However, the NBPA has advised free agents to take their new salaries over 18 months rather than the customary 12 months to prepare for a likely lockout in the summer of 2017. Anthony has not taken that advice, obviously, although he's unlikely to need those lockout-spanning paychecks with such a huge fortune already in his control. It would take a complete failure of planning and investment to struggle to pay the bills over that period.
Financial data aside, one thing this news does tell us is that there's likely to be a party at Melo's house really soon. I'll bring the dip.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1sKogqc
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