Former New York Knicks and LA Lakers star Carmelo Anthony recently sat down on the 7 pm in Brooklyn podcast to talk about the incredible $700 million, 10-year deal that Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. While the contract makes Ohtani the highest-paid player in the history of the MLB, Carmelo Anthony suggested that the deal is actually a bargain.
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He initially talked about how the cable and streaming deals that the Dodgers have signed means that the financials simply do not matter for the franchise.
“Dodgers’ backbone of operations is built on cable money. The 700 don’t even hurt them. Right, so this is cable wars, this is streaming wars, this is all of that, that’s actually going into, coming into play, and now we seeing when it actually does work,” he said, before talking about how Ohtani was a player who deserved the big money.
“Somebody who is actually worth, he is worth it. You getting the top 2 superstars in MLB at one time. You getting the top pitcher, and you getting the top hitter,” he said. Considered arguably the greatest two-way Baseball player of all time, signing Ohtani, as far as Carmelo is concerned, represents signing two big superstars.
Regardless, Carmelo was eventually asked how he himself would have reacted if he was given the insane amount as part of an NBA contract. As one would expect, Anthony claimed he would have invested in a range of schools, and businesses, and would have tried to transform the infrastructure of various regions.
That, however, was only true with respect to a 39-year-old Melo. The former NBA star claimed that he would have bought the entire city of Baltimore had he been given that much money when he was younger.
Shohei Ohtani is still out-earned by a plethora of NBA stars
The contract in itself makes Ohtani the highest-paid MLB player of all time and represents huge money. However, that does not mean he ranks high among the highest-paid NBA stars.
As a matter of fact, Ohtani trails a range of NBA including both veterans and some upcoming youngsters. For example, LeBron James earns more than $627,000 per game which easily trumps Ohtani’s per-game salary, standing at $432,099.
While the overall value of the contract might be higher than all NBA players, Ohtani will still lag when it comes to what he makes per appearance. Stars such as Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, and a range of other superstars effectively trump that amount, when it comes to salary per game.
