non billiken discussion topic

[billiken_roy]

this morning i was talking to a group of friends and fellow sportsnuts that got into a discussion about karl malone and his signing for the lakers. the question came up as to how this contract will affect karl's nba pension after his obvious soon retirement.

i was always under the impression that the pro sports pensions are based on first being part of the major scene for a required number of years and then their benefit amount would be based on a percentage of their final contract.

for example, if karl was making $10 million per season as a jazz player and quit, let's say at a certain age he would then get a percentage of that $10 million each year till death. but now if his final contract is this $1 million deal he just signed with the lakers, hasnt he effectively screwed himself out of HUGE dollars down the road?

i base this thinking on the ex-cardinal danny cox who i had read refused to "hang around" the major leagues after his big blue jay contract had expired because of this very issue. i know that baseball and the nba arent necessarily the same, but i cant find anything on the internet that details how the different pro sports "take care" of their participants after retirement. anyone have a link or some knowledge on pro athlete's pensions?

[Schasz]

BRoy,

Pardon me if I forget to shed any tears for the Mailman. I mean if this guy has invested his money even halfway decent, then what he gets from a NBA pension will be the least of his worries.

Heck, my wife and I have done very well in the market, so well I moved here to Tampa without a job. I have to believe Karl is set up for life, as he doesn't impress me as one of the NBA types who got hooked on the wrong kind of vices like drugs. Karl's move to LA LA land IMHO was strictly to get a ring before he hangs it up. Surely, his skills have not gone down the tubes far enough that he could not have received a better money deal with a lesser team.

[davidnark]

I don't know the details of the respective sports leagues' pension plans, but the type of pension plan you are referring to is only one of a number of options and structures for pension plans. For example, profit-sharing and other account-based plans are only incidentally affected by the salary in one's last year of employment.

[billiken_roy]

schasz, i wasnt feeling sorry for karl either. but it still brings out a curious question of how the nba pension works. is it indeed tied to their "final contract"?

[Taj79]

Could it be tied to that "verteran's exemption" thing I hear so much about? Some sort of old-age (older aged, I guess) exemption where they don't have to pay market rates for like one guy on the team who signs for some veteran's minimum and maybe that doesn't count against his pension numbers .... if the numbers are as you say they are.

Schasz has got to be right and Malone is indeed shrewd on his investments. I remember being in Salt Lake on business and the local news was running something about things not only he was into but his wife was as well. He doesn't need money ... now or later. Unless his investments head south in the future.

Kid from my hometown was a lefty with the Expos .... Chris Nabholtz. Went to school near here at Towson State. A big six-foot, seven-inch lefty. One would figure with the likes of Jesse Orosco and John Franco and Dennis Cook that if a lefty reliver even passed gas, there would be a job for him in the majors. Nabholtz got hurt, fell out of favor with the Expos, ended up with the tribe and called it quits in his late 20's. Now, I don't know what he made, or what he invested or what his pension is ... but the only place to find him since he "retired" is the golf course. He might have been 1/100th as successful as the Mailman ... if that. But he ain't hurting either right now so however it works, it works out pretty well for these guys.

I don't go to pro games anymore. This is sort of a part of it as well.