10 Athletes Who Got Shockingly Huge Contracts
Athletes are going to get paid. Sometimes, they're going to get a paid a lot more than they're worth.
To be upfront with it, we want to put judgements and front-office shaming aside. But that's going to be incredibly difficult to do. The point of this piece is to visit the world of sports contracts and remind you of some players who got shockingly huge deals.
These are either names you'd normally brush away and forget they made crazy money or guys we will remember forever as having received ground-rattling deals.
As part of an ongoing series, we now bring you Part 1 of our look at athletes who landed a bank vault full of cash when it came down to signing their contracts.
Shin-Soo Choo
1 of 10
Hunting down expensive contracts isn't easy, especially when you remember Texas Rangers slugger Shin-Soo Choo secured himself a $130 million over a seven-year period.
We aren't saying Choo a bad player, because he's had a successful MLB career to date. His lifetime average of .281 is solid. It's just that when you think about hundreds of millions of bucks being thrown around, Choo is not a guy you would expect to be making that kind of loot.
The Rangers aren't rookies when it comes to spending a small fortune on players—Alex Rodriguez knows that all too well. Choo got paid. And as Jerry Crasnick of ESPN pointed out, the deal was structured by his agent, the incomparable Scott Boras.
Rashard Lewis
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Rashard Lewis set quite the tone when he inked a historic deal with the Orlando Magic back in 2007. A sign-and-trade deal involving the Seattle SuperSonics and Magic allowed Lewis to come to terms on a six-year arrangement valued at $118 million.
The point of that deal was to find someone to play alongside Dwight Howard and propel the Magic to an NBA title. In fairness to the front office at the time, the club did reach the NBA Finals in 2009.
Lewis wasn't worth a fraction of that cost. His point-per-game totals descended from 18.2 in Year 1 of his contract to a lowly 14.1 by the conclusion of the 2009-10 NBA season.
We aren't going to sit here to debate the worth of the deal for hours. However, when you look back at the money the Magic spent on attaining Lewis' services, you have to ask, "He really got paid that much money?"
Matt Kemp
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Baseball money has been like Monopoly money for years now. It's no secret the sport's players get freightliners full of cash delivered to the doorsteps of their mansions.
Even knowing all of that, sometimes you look up from your smartphone and can't believe how certain players acquire such a nice pile of loot.
Matt Kemp of the San Diego Padres fits that billing.
Kemp was a budding talent for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The front office realized that and decided to give him a handsome salary in return for his services. Kemp's deal was structured to be an eight-year contract worth $160 million.
The contract didn't last long in terms of his time with the Dodgers. Kemp was traded to the Padres in December of 2014—two seasons after he initially put his name on the dotted line. According to ESPN's report, in that trade, the Dodgers paid an estimated $32 million to San Diego to help with that tremendous amount of cash.
Kemp's skills aside, a cool $160 million is a crazy chunk of change.
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Gilbert Arenas
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Six years, $111 million. Washington Wizards fans will forever remember those numbers. It's the contract Gilbert Arenas signed in 2008.
This atrocity went down long before John Wall came to town and change the faced of the franchise for good. Arenas took that cash and struggled to stay on the court.
All of those missed games culminated with a bizarre gun-related incident involving teammate at the time Javaris Crittenton. He was eventually sent to the Orlando Magic in 2010 before fizzling out of the league.
The man once dubbed "Agent Zero" got paid a handsome salary for services barely rendered. Looking back at that situation, it's hard to fathom how he even secured that kind of deal.
Carlos Lee
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We know Major League Baseball is a money league. Franchises continuously dole out cash to players with the hopes of sparking the roster.
Because of that, Carlos Lee found himself in a wonderful position in 2006. The Astros needed hitting, and Lee was the beneficiary of that. His six-year, $100 million deal was a sweet haul at the time.
Lee hung around for six seasons, hitting 133 home runs, driving in 533 RBI and finishing his career there with a .286 batting average. Not bad, but that's not amazing. With crazy money being tossed around so frequently, it's easy to forget Lee got himself paid in '06.
Erick Dampier
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The Dallas Mavericks desperately needed a big man in the early 2000s. Owner Mark Cuban was hunting one down in free agency, armed with a crossbow of cash. He was looking for a centerpiece for his golden goose of a franchise.
In 2004, Cuban settled on Erick Dampier—a 6'11" center coming off a productive season manning the middle for the Golden State Warriors.
The problem was, prior to that lone season in which Dampier averaged 12.3 points and 12 rebounds per game, the fact is he wasn't any good. He was a mediocre center.
But Cuban decided to forget history. He must have figured Dampier had upside, so he broke out his checkbook and went in. The contract was a seven-year commitment worth $73 million. Dampier wound up playing six dreadful seasons in Dallas, averaging 6.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
Daunte Culpepper
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The Minnesota Vikings needed a long-term solution at quarterback in 2003. Daunte Culpepper was the man who wound up being on the receiving end of a 10-year contract that totaled $102 million.
At the time of the signing, he was the third-highest-paid player in the NFL, behind Donovan McNabb and Drew Bledsoe.
As the Batman to Randy Moss' Robin, Culpepper instantly became a fan favorite. Nowadays, it's crazy to think he only played three seasons of that deal before shredding his knee and leaving for the Miami Dolphins in 2006.
Quarterback contracts remain lucrative. The one Culpepper got in 2003 happened to be shockingly high.
Raef LaFrentz
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Mark Cuban's woes started long before Erick Dampier was dancing in pools full of cash. A man by the name of Raef LaFrentz was one of the top earners during the early days of the Cuban administration.
LaFrentz was a shot-blocker who had started to develop into a nice jumper while spending time with the Denver Nuggets. When the Mavs pursued LaFrentz, they were in the market to overpay.
The thought of pairing an up-and-coming big man who could shoot with Dirk Nowitzki was far too enticing for Cuban and his staff to pass up on. They executed a trade for LaFrentz and signed him to a seven-year contract worth $70 million.
That deal got the Mavericks 9.7 points and 5.5 total rebounds per game in one season before he was sent over to the Boston Celtics. Talk about a mistake.
Mike Hampton
9 of 10
Mike Hampton was a pitcher who cashed in at the right time. His 2001 contract worth $121 million was a serious haul.
When the Colorado Rockies brought him aboard, Hampton was the highest-paid player in baseball. He was an excellent thrower leading into the deal, winning 22 games with the Houston Astros in 1999 and 15 with the New York Mets the year after.
The plight at Coors Field turned out to be too much for Hampton to deal with. Two years is all it took for that megadeal to crumble. Hampton went 21-28 with a 5.75 ERA. He was promptly traded the Atlanta Braves and all was soon forgotten in the Mile High City.
Jermaine O'Neal
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Of all the big-man contracts in the NBA, Jermaine O'Neal's seven-year soiree with the Indiana Pacers was insanely lucrative. The deal was calculated at $126 million, reported by Jonathan Abrams of Grantland.
Before signing said deal, O'Neal had developed into one of the few power forwards around who was young, established and durable. In retrospect, the fact the Pacers made him the face of their franchise was the right move.
Had it not been for injuries and the Malice at the Palace incident, O'Neal could have lived up to that humongous contract. He did secure three seasons averaging over 20 points and nine rebounds per game.
Still, the contract he got was shockingly huge.
All stats and information provided by Sports-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.
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