NBC sports business reporter/random financial trivia tweeter Darren Rovell tweeted Tuesday that the NBA players union has informed its members that each will be receiving an additional $58,000 payment from the league because of a "shortfall". In true Rovellian fashion, little information was presented beyond that tweet, but presumably the payment is related to the escrow amount withheld from players' paychecks to ensure the Union received the precise 57% of BRI dictated in the CBA. Back in July it was announced that roughly $160 million dollars would be returned to the players to compensate for those withholdings, but this payment is evidently a further adjustment to that figure.
$58,000 seems like a lot of money to essentially stumble upon, and the lack of mention before now would seem to indicate that few players expected to suddenly find a significant chunk of loose change coming their way. With the holiday shopping season ramping up in the next few days, impulse buys were certain to be a common occurrence, and as it turns out, many Bucks players have already burned through their cash. Through a few secret sources and an unpleasant amount of dumpster diving, we've uncovered what some of the Milwaukee Bucks puchased with their hard-earned dough.
Larry Sanders: With nothing to occupy the long hours of the day, Larry figured now was as good a time as any to find a hobby, and decided collecting pieces of antique flying machines was the hobby for him. He's now got a strip of fabric from the rigid airship USS Shanendoah and one of those umbrella-looking cars that bounces on the ground.
Carlos Delfino: Nintendo GameCube. Super Mario Sunshine. Replica of the Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device. Runs to the top of the tallest building in the game, then stands triumphantly in his living room and shouts, "THIS IS MY PLAZA, MY KINGDOM, MY ISLAND IN THE SUN!"
Brandon Jennings: 3,400 copies of the greatest album ever.
Ersan Ilyasova: Purchased the naming and construction rights to a Turkish park, then bulldozed it and poured concrete over the space, because he's all bitter these days.
Andrew Bogut: Finally bought all the supplies and enrolled in a wilderness survival class at a local nature center in Australia so he could go on a vision quest in the outback. The goal? Spiritual and arthrological healing.
Jon Brockman: Used the payment to organize a Tweet-Up with his followers, which occupied the entire state of South Dakota. It was a pretty good time, especially the food -- Jon catered the party with steak and fish. I had lasagna.
Earl Boykins: A cat that can determine, with 99.5% confidence, the top college football program in the nation. When presented with individual food bowls labelled with the names of the top 5 teams in the final regular-season AP poll, the cat will refuse to eat any of the food, instead scattering the dry nuggets across the floor with its paws. When the distance from the center of its respective bowl of each individual nugget is measured and summed (by vector magnitude, of course), the highest value will signify the best team in the country. This calculation is also a component of 3 different computer rankings in the BCS.
Drew Gooden: Socks.
Stephen Jackson: Invested all his money in Procter & Gamble because (and I quote), "Toothpaste isn't going away, folks."