At an introductory news conference with the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, the former Detroit Pistons free agent bust pointed out how the next year is going to be a financial challenge.
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“At the end of the day, you know, I do have a family,” Smith said via David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel.
Smith: “I kind of find humor in serious situations sometimes, but you’ve got to do whatever it takes in order to acquire or keep a person of that dominance like he’s been doing the past couple years”. “But I’m going to push through it, you know”.
Smith’s contract with the Clippers will pay him $1.5 million next season, while the Pistons will also pay him $5.4 million after buying out his old contract, giving the erratic swingman a total salary for the 2015-16 season of $6.9 million. That’s just under half of what he was set to make this season, $14 million, had the Pistons not waived him, or had they found a doofus to trade for him last season.
Do you feel for Ex-Detroit Piston Josh Smith?
Smith: “Just being able to contribute on both ends of the floor, being versatile like I’ve always been in my career, just going out there and playing in a loose, free offense”.
Here’s more on what Smith had to say, touching on last year’s playoff series, why he chose the Clippers and what his role will be. It’s a question Mr. Smith is asking himself these days.
The former shooting guard/small forward, who played in the league from 1992 to 2005, was once offered a three-year, $30 million contract from the Minnesota Timberwolves. “But for the millionth time, could we ban jocks from using the exhausted take-care-of-my-family shtick?” Even if that $5.4 million will act as a nice chunk of change for a player who might not be in the National Basteball Association in 2018-19, at age 33.
“I have a lot of risk here”, Sprewell explained, as recalled by the Free Press.
Josh Smith said it was going to be harder for him and his family financially this year because he is making only $6.9 million to play with the Los Angeles Clippers.
That’s $6.9 million Smith will make this season.
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I don’t know about you, but if I’d made about $8.3 million per year the past 11 years, I’d like to think I’d have enough in my savings account to feed my family for a few months, if not forever.
