The sale of the Los Angeles Clippers for a record $2 billion seems as though it will have a far reaching effect beyond just what other teams will sell for in the future. As we saw in various cases over this past week, players who were told that teams were losing money during the last lockout are looking at this $2 billion sale with a lot of angst.
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While it will no doubt lead to another lockout in which the players demand a higher salary base don the franchise values, we could see players play around with their own contracts to try and see out lucrative deals with teams that become very rich in the coming years.
According to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel it appears that LeBron James may be directly affected by the $2 billion sale of the Clippers and may decide to take his contract status with the Heat on a year-by-year basis to see if more and more lucrative deals are out there.
We can likely expect a sale pitch from Ballmer to LeBron to come out to Los Angeles this summer and join the Clippers. Ballmer is helping to wash the stain of Donald Sterling from the Clippers but to fully leave this era behind would require a name change and/or the acquisition of a huge name.
That could end up being LeBron but regardless of what he does this offseason, it appears that LeBron and other big superstars will begin to seek out bigger and bigger contracts as teams get more and more valuable.