OPINION

By Sean Deveney

updated 9:05 p.m. ET Sept. 15, 2008

Sean Deveney

Hard economic times tend to take center stage during an election year, and certainly, the front pages have been littered with stories about gas prices and home loans.

But, we ask you, who will think about the real victims of our nation's economic woes? What about the NBA players who have seen their salaries scaled back, who have been forced to go to Europe, who have been sitting, Ben Gordon-like, in a state of unsigned limbo?

Times like this call for a classic political ploy — going after the absurdly rich. And there are plenty of absurdly rich players in the NBA, guys who are still collecting on those what-were-they-thinking? contracts given out by myopic general managers. Thanks to the salary cap and the luxury tax, there is only so much money that can be given to players, and when one guy is underpaid, it means another is overpaid.

That brings us to this edition of the Bryant "Big Country" Reeves Memorial Overpaid List, also known by the simple acronym, BBCRMOL. The annual list honors those NBA players of limited ability but bounteous salary. By bounteous, we mean something well above the mid-level exception. (Example: Reeves was given a six-year, $61.8 million contract extension by the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997.) And we've exempted players who have been waived on the grounds that the team is at least trying to rectify its error.

With that, here is the list, based on results of the 2007-08 season:

1. Stephon Marbury, Knicks. 2008-09 salary: $21.9 million. Marbury has moved from second place on the BBCRMOL to the top, and we should all hope he is duly flattered. Marbury's season ended with ankle surgery, and it's likely no one with the Knicks really noticed. He had averaged 13.9 points in 24 games. The follies of Isiah Thomas are many and costly (Jerome James will make $6.2 million, Malik Rose will make $7.6 million and Jared Jeffries will make $6 million), but Marbury's contract rules. There's only one way to make one of the NBA's worst teams its highest paid team, and that's to vastly overpay everyone.

2. Antoine Walker, Grizzlies. '08-09 salary: $9.3 million. Walker is emblematic of the Heat team that stormed to the 2006 championship. He got the ring, had some champagne, went to the beach and never really returned. He was already on the downward slope before the championship, but after that, the wheels fell off. He shot 39.7 percent the next year, then 36.3 percent in 46 games in Minnesota last year. Hard to say whether the Grizzlies will even let Walker on the floor this year, though his contract remains valuable in a trade (because it expires after the season). Either way, Walker has a team option next summer. Safe to say the Grizzlies won't be exercising it.

3. Ben Wallace, Cavaliers. '08-09 salary: $14.5 million. Maybe money really can't buy happiness. Wallace is a case in point. Something about the enormous four-year, $60 million deal Wallace signed with the Bulls in the summer of 2006 seems to have made him irreparably prickly and grumpy, to the point that the Bulls were trying to dump him a year after signing him. Wallace clearly isn't the athlete he once was, which has cut down on his ability to dominate defensively but has greatly increased his BBCRMOL status. He averaged 4.8 points and 8.4 rebounds on 39.2 percent shooting, which is now the Cavs' problem.

4. Jermaine O'Neal, Raptors. '08-09 salary: $21.3 million. Good health has eluded O'Neal. He has played 44, 51, 69 and 42 games in his last four seasons. Even when he was active, he hasn't been worth in excess of $20 million. It becomes imperative now that he get on the court and stay there, because the Raptors are sinking a lot of their future into the notion that O'Neal can boost Chris Bosh and this team into the upper level of the East. He can't do that in civvies.

5. Raef LaFrentz, Blazers. '08-09 salary: $12.7 million. LaFrentz is 31 and has been slowed by injuries throughout his career. If he had anything left to give, we wouldn't know it because he is not going to play behind Portland's pack of talented young big men. He managed just 39 appearances last year, averaging 1.7 points and 1.7 rebounds.

6. Bobby Simmons, Nets. '08-09 salary: $9.9 million. The Bucks were happy to dump the remaining two years and $20 million of Simmons' contract. After a very productive season (16.4 points, 5.9 rebounds) with the Clippers in 2004-05, Simmons signed a five-year, $47 million deal with the Bucks, put up a so-so season and then missed an entire season with foot and ankle surgeries. He returned last year, but looked to be a shadow of his former self, averaging 7.6 points on 42.1 percent shooting. Those kinds of numbers earn you a place on the trade block and a place on the BBCRMOL.

7. Erick Dampier, Mavericks. '08-09 salary: $9.5 million. Not long ago, 7-footers just got paid, almost through very little effort of their own and no matter what evidence could be presented to show that they should not be signed. Dampier was a perfect example, getting a mind-boggling seven-year, $73 million deal with the Mavericks in 2004. This despite just one good season that came suspiciously in his contract year with the Warriors. Predictably, that was Dampier's only good year, as he has settled back into being a guy who blocks a shot or two, grabs seven or eight rebounds and has anvil hands. He has lots of money to count with those anvils, however.

8. Jason Kidd, Mavericks, and Shaquille O'Neal, Suns. '08-09 salary: $41 million combined. Oooh, the BBCRMOL loves big names! Despite good statistical production after his trade to Phoenix (12.9 points and 10.6 rebounds), the Suns were run out of the playoffs in the first round. Now the team has a new coach and is trying to reconfigure its plans around an aging veteran with a staggering salary. Sound familiar? It should, because it is almost the exact situation the Mavs are in with Kidd. Big-time veteran, decent numbers, lost a step, first-round playoff loss, new coach and, of course, enormous salary ($21.3 million) taking up more than a third of the team's allowed cap.

9. Eric Snow, Cavaliers. '08-09 salary: $7.3 million. Snow has made a long career out of being a pretty good, smart guy. He doesn't make mistakes, he is considered a leader and is well respected in and out of the locker room. He was injured a little last year, but even when healthy, he is beyond on-court usefulness. He averaged 1.0 -- yes, exactly one -- point per game last year. He played 22 games and scored 22 points. For a point a game and some veteran leadership, $7.3 million is a lot to pay.

10. Kenyon Martin and Nene, Nuggets. '08-09 salary: $24 million combined. Martin was relatively productive last year, with averages of 12.4 points and 6.5 rebounds. That's not worth $13.2 million, but it's an improvement. Nene was not productive, with just 16 games played. These two were supposed to be Denver's front line of the future, and the future is in danger of soon becoming the past. Marcus Camby is gone, and to replace him, the Nuggets have these two at $24 million. In fact, they'll have them for at least the next three years at $26 and $28 million, too. So, lots of fingers are crossed in Denver.

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