The Los Angeles Lakers were the 2012-13 season luxury tax champions due to their star studded cast of Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Metta World Peace and Pau Gasol. That gambled however failed to pay off as the Lakers limped into the playoffs with injury and chemistry problems.
The Nets owed the 3rd most in luxury tax for last season with a tab of $12,883,647, but that is nothing compared to what they’re set to owe next summer. Early estimates have them paying between $72-77 million in luxury tax.
According to ESPN’s Marc Stein:
"The NBA also announced its salary cap and luxury-tax threshold for 2013-14, when penalties for breaching it will be much steeper. Next season ushers in a more punitive scale for roster excess than seen during the first two seasons of the NBA’s labor agreement introduced in December 2011.The Nets, for example, are projected at this early juncture to have a tax bill in the $75 million range despite carrying a similar payroll of roughly $100 million to the Lakers of 2012-13."
The Nets took on a lot of the Boston Celtics salary when they acquired Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry. Their payroll next season will be similar to the Lakers last season. The rules change though, and that is the difference.
Wanna know how new NBA world works? With essentially same payroll as Lakers last season, Nets will owe$70+ mil in tax after 2013-14 season
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 10, 2013
You read right, my friends. Nets projected, at this early juncture, to owe somewhere between $72M and $77M in taxes after coming season
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 10, 2013
Translation: Mikhail Prokhorov REALLY wants to win a championship in that original five-year window he laid out. For some reason ...
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 10, 2013