Al-Farouq Aminu is still getting checks from the Los Angeles Clippers.
Anticipating a potentially nasty lockout that dragged on, a few guys set up special contracts in recent years that stretched out their payments from last season into this year, according to the USA Today (via CBSSports Eye on Basketball):Aminu, a rookie last season, is one of four clients of agent Raymond Brothers who spread their 2010-11 NBA salaries over 18 or 24 months to continue receiving paychecks if the league-imposed lockout forces the cancellation of games.
Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph, Dallas Mavericks forward Caron Butler and Detroit Pistons guard Ben Gordon, all Brothers clients, have similar setups.
Smart. Everyone and their brother knew this lockout was coming for a couple years now, the only question was how long it would last. Brothers was smart and spread out the payments so the checks keep rolling in and his players wouldn’t feel the pinch during a lockout (this is money paid for services already provided last season).
Other agents as well as the union itself has been preaching for a couple years now to players to save up some money for this lockout.
There are some owners who think the players union will cave once players start missing a few paychecks (their first one wouldn’t be until Nov. 15, then most players are paid bi-weekly through the regular season). The longer the players can hold out, the more the owners have reason to compromise as they are not getting in any revenue from games and they still have expenses.
But bot sides are dug in from a long battle. And a few NBA players still have checks coming in.
