{"id":30521,"date":"2025-07-29T17:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/30521\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T17:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:54:08","slug":"kyrie-irving-says-announcing-nba-salaries-put-a-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/30521\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrie Irving Says Announcing NBA Salaries ‘Put a Target’ …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyrie Irving<\/a> is questioning why pro athletes\u2019 paychecks are so easily accessible \u2014 and whether that visibility puts them at risk. <\/p>\n

During a recent Twitch stream, the Dallas Mavericks guard said publicizing contracts can have \u201creal-life consequences,\u201d adding, \u201cI wonder how much that puts a target on someone\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irving also pointed out that while people may know what Fortune 500 CEOs make, sports fans can access far more granular details about athletes\u2019 deals \u2014 from pay scales to bonuses and contract escalators. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to sports, you know exactly the pay scale and the details of it,\u201d he said, noting that those figures are then discussed without much thought to what that means for players off the court. There isn\u2019t a single official transaction wire that publishes every dollar, but media reports, collective bargaining agreement language, and salary-cap rules make the numbers discoverable. <\/p>\n

The transparency hits close to home. Irving signed a three-year, $118.5 million contract with Dallas on July 7 and has inked $429.6 million in NBA deals over his 14-year career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know exactly what I\u2019m making, there\u2019s an awkwardness to that where I\u2019m existing within our same society,\u201d he said, before concluding, \u201cSometimes it can get a little intrusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The broader concern is safety. Irving appeared to reference instances where high-profile players have been targeted in robberies or scams, as several NBA names \u2014 including Luka Don\u010di\u0107, Mike Conley, DeMar DeRozan, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope \u2014 have reported home burglaries in recent years.<\/p>\n

Other athletes are split on the issue. Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves told MarketWatch<\/a> last year that public knowledge of his salary can be uncomfortable: \u201cYou definitely get some comments,\u201d he said, adding that even after signing a $53.8 million deal in 2023, he remains frugal. <\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf was less concerned, saying he hadn\u2019t really thought about it and relies on trusted people around him: \u201cEverybody doesn\u2019t get to touch my money \u2014 only the people that I bless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyrie Irving is questioning why pro athletes\u2019 paychecks are so easily accessible \u2014 and whether that visibility puts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-30521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}