FEBRUARY 10, 2017 7 $0.25B BARGAIN Dirk Nowitzki is not only an all-time great, his salary has also been an incredible value. BY EVAN HOOPFER l [email protected] l 214-706-7123 l @DBJHoopfer 29,797 irk Nowitzki has made nearly $242 million — or about a quarter of $1 POINTS 7th all-time billion — in his 19-year career for the Dallas Mavericks.While that’s a 10,681 lot of money for playing basketball, he has actually been underpaid REBOUNDS relative to his performance. Nowitzki is one of the all-time greats. 33rd all-time DHow great? Tere’s a statistic that quantifies NBA players’ overall performance 21.8 called “win shares.” For example, in Nowitzki’s 2006-07 season when he won CAREER PPG MVP, he had 17.7 win shares. Tat means if you took Nowitzki off the Mavericks 87.9% that season, the team would win 17.7 less games. FREE THROW % He has never been the highest-paid player in the NBA, but during his career, 38.1% he’s had more win shares in a season than the highest-paid player in the league 3-POINT % 13 times. He has taken a smaller salary in the past to help the team with the salary R 13-time All-Star cap, but this year Nowitzki is making a career-high $25 million. Te negotiations R ‘06-07 NBA MVP between Nowitzki and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban weren’t typical. Nowitzki R ‘10-11 NBA champ /Finals MVP asked for a number, but the team had more money to play with so they gave him AS OF FEB. 5 more than he asked for. Dirk Highest-paid Dirk win Highest-paid player SHOWING DIRK’S VALUE salary player salary shares win shares WIN SHARES $2M $4M $6M $8M $10M $12M $14M $16M $18M $20M $22M $24M $26M $28M 0.8 3.3 ’98- $1.47M ’99 $18.5M Patrick Ewing 8.1 18.6 ’99- $1.58M ’00 $17.1M Shaquille O’Neal 14.6 11.8 ’00- $1.69M ’01 $19.6M Kevin Garnett 13.4 12.8 ’01- $2.16M ’02 $22.4M Kevin Garnett 16.1 15.6 ’02- $10.1M ’03 $25.2M Kevin Garnett 11.5 18.3 ’03- $11.3M ’04 $28M Kevin Garnett 15.6 11 ’04- $12.6M ’05 $29.5M Shaquille 17.7 6.2 ’05- $13.8M O’Neal ’06 $20M Shaquille O’Neal 16.3 10.7 ’06- $15.1M ’07 $21M Kevin Garnett 12.9 12.9 ’07- $16.4M ’08 $23.8M Kevin Garnett 10.9 7.1 ’08- $18.1M ’09 $24.8M Kevin Garnett 12.3 9.4 ’09- $19.8M ’10 $23.03M Kobe Bryant 11.1 10.3 ’10- $17.3M ’11 $24.8M Kobe Bryant 7.6 6.2 ’11- $15.4M ’12 $25.2M Kobe Bryant 5 10.9 ’12- $20.9M ’13 $30.45M Kobe Bryant 10.9 -0.4 ’13- $22.7M ’14 $30.45M Kobe Bryant 7.2 0.2 ’14- $7.97M $23.5M ’15 Kobe Bryant 6.8 -0.4 ’15- $8.33M ’16 $25M Kobe Bryant 0.8 7.8 ’16- $25M ’17 $30.96M LeBron James $2M $4M $6M $8M $10M $12M $14M $16M $18M $20M $22M $24M $26M $28M SOURCE: Spotrac and Basketball Reference NBA PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES.