Last night at some point during a frustrating game in which Chris Paul turned the entire Wolves roster into mincemeat in the 4th quarter, we sent out the following Tweet:
Now, the humorous thing about the tweet is it is actually true. None of the usual hyperbole spouted from our Twitter account was present in this intense "financial analysis." Assuming CP3's gross basketball salary (not even counting endorsements) is around $18,000,000 (I can't recall the initial number I used last night, but it is higher below after digging), it proportionally worked out that Chris Paul receiving a flopping fine is akin to a fairly average middle-class salaried human being reprimanded a trip to Quizno's, or a few gallons of gas, for flopping. It is often discussed that fines in the NBA don't illicit a change in action, as a $5k fine is "nothing to these players" and that turns out to be truer than we thought. In fact, wouldn't a fine this small make you want to flop MORE, start a pool with other players, and see if you can continue to get away with it? It is a joke, really.
For fun, let's take this one step further. Earlier today I asked for some ideas on who the most notorious floppers are in the league and pooled together some of the responses and, utilizing the superb shamsports.com, here is what a flop for said player would "feel like" at your relatively paltry salary. Simply find your approximate salary (I figure few millionaires read this site), then match it up to your favorite knucklehead, and quickly realize that, with the exception of Robbie Hummel (added for fun as a minimum salary rookie), a flopping fine is no more impactful than a parking ticket. And while someone with more skills than I should make this into a program where you can enter your salary, pick a player, and get a result, we don't quite have those resources at the moment, so apologies. Enjoy:
