Kobe Bryant

            The NBA season just started and there has been a lot of conflict surrounding Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant (36) stands to make $23,500,000 dollars this year, making him the highest paid player in the league this year. By comparison Lebron James (29) will make $20,644.000 and Dirk Nowitzki (36) will make $7,974,482.

            Beyond the salary numbers I was interested in comparing Kobe's numbers versus Jordan and Lebron (chart below). Kobe has played for 19 years versus 15 for Jordan and 11 so far for Lebron. Based on totals the categories Kobe Bryant leads in are Assists and Turnovers. In 15 years MJ scored more total points than Kobe in 19, had more rebounds, almost 700 more steals, and 250 more blocks. Based on his current averages if Lebron were to play 15 years not 19, he would have 8,299 rebounds, 7,895 assists, 1,969 steals, 920 blocks, and 3,811 turnovers. That means at the 15 year mark Lebron will have approximately 1800 more rebounds, 2800 more assists, 150 more steals, 300 more blocks, and 60 more turnovers. 

             Kobe Bryant is a phenomenal basketball player but at least statistically not MJ or Lebron, which begs the question if at age 36 the Lakers were wise to make him the highest paid player in the league. I am all for being loyal to your players, but shouldn’t they be loyal to their team. For example, Dirk is the fourth highest paid player on the Mavericks this year. He is obviously not a Kobe Bryant, but still. I included his career stats below for kicks. 

            Here is another interesting thing to note Career FGA: Kobe Bryant 24391; Michael Jordan 24537; Lebron James 16764; Dirk Nowitzki 19759. Kobe scores 1.30 pts per attempt, by comparison Jordan’s pts per attempt were 1.31, Lebron’s pts per attempt are 1.38 and Dirk’s pts per attempt are 1.35. Anyone have any thoughts. 

Name                 Yrs   FG%  3p%    2p%    Ft%    RB      Ast      Stl        Blk      TO      Ttl Pts

Kobe Bryant      19     0.453   0.335   0.483   0.838   6604    5927    1836    620      3754    31719

Michael Jordan  15      0.497   0.327   0.51     0.835   6672    5633    2514    893      2924    32292

Lebron James     11     0.497   0.341   0.535   0.747   6086    5790    1444    675      2795    23170

Dirk Nowitzki    16     0.476   0.383   0.499   0.879   9600    3141    1038    1095    2209    26804

$359,000 for the lawyer, $1000 for the claimant

Yes you read the headline correctly, the lawyers got $359,000 and the victim got $1000. Here is an article about the case. I know none of the underlying facts of the case beyond what is in the article, so I won't go into why the claimant got only a $1000. But, based on the article I picked up two things that may be of some import here about the legal fees in the case.

1. $100,000 of it was expenses, which have to be outlined and justified to the Court. This is money the lawyers paid over the course of the trial out of their pocket (including court filing fee, costs for depositions, discovery costs, etc...), and if they had lost would likely not recover.

2. The case took six years. The attorneys worked for six years again knowing that if they did not win or reach a settlement they might not get paid for their time.

I am curious how many accountants, consultants, doctors, etc... would spend $100,000 of their own money on someone else' behalf in the hopes of getting reimbursed. Further how many of these same professionals would work and wait for six years to actually get paid.

Also, just as a note the lawyers got paid $259,000 in fees over a six year span. It would not be surprising for them to have spent a 1000 hours over that span, less than 200 hours a year on the case. Based on the 1000 hour scenario they charged $259/hr. That is what they charged an hour not what they took home by any means. What do accountants, consultants, doctors, etc... charge per hour?

It is insane that the victim got only a $1000, and the lawyers got $359,000. That does not point to the character of the attorneys but is certainly a problem with the legal system. A system that is not designed by lawyers but by legislatures, that the public voted for. The lawyers simply got paid for the work they did.