NBA coaching salaries are exploding – and it’s extending to the assistant ranks.
A year after Lawrence Frank received $6 million over six years to help/bother Jason Kidd for a few games, the Warriors doubled Alvin Gentry’s salary to convince him to leave the Clippers.
That was just the start.
The Cavaliers are handsomely paying Tyronn Lue, who finished second to David Blatt in Cleveland’s coaching search, to join Blatt’s staff.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
Lue agreed to a four-year, $6.5 million deal, sources said. The contract’s final two years will pay Lue $1.75 million and $2 million, league sources said. The fourth year of the deal is a team option, sources said.
With a 1,309,650 salary, Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris was college football’s top-paid assistant last year. Monte Kiffin made $1,533,764 to coordinate USC’s defense the year before.
Jason Garrett made nearly $3 million as a Dallas Cowboys assistant before becoming their head coach, and it stands to risen NFL coaching salaries have only risen since.
Football definitely features the highest assistant-coach salaries, but basketball is getting there.
Lue, after years of working under Doc Rivers, is highly regarded, but other assistants could probably command more. Maybe this is just Dan Gilbert throwing money at his problems, but I think it’s a step toward most teams having at least one million-dollar assistant within a few years.