Has anyone wondered how many NBA players participated in the 2012 London games? I have researched this question by looking at the London2012.com website. Here’s a breakdown by country and player’s NBA yearly salary. The yearly salary information was obtained from Hoopsworld.com.
The United States had 12 NBA players:
Tyson Chandler, New York Knicks 2012 salary $13,604,188
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder 2012 salary $16,669,630
Lebron James, Miami Heat 2012 salary $17,545,000
Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder 2012 salary $13,668,750
Deron Williams, Brooklyn Nets 2012 salary $17,177,795
Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia 76ers 2012 salary $14,968,250
Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers 2012 salary $27,849,149
Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves 2012 salary $13,668,750
James Harden, Oklahoma City Thunder 2012 salary $5,820,417
Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers 2012 salary $17,779,458
Anthony Davis, New Orleans Hornets 2012 salary $5,144,280
Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks 2012 salary $20,463,024
Total $184,358,691
Spain had 5 NBA players:
Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers 2012 salary $19,000,000
Rudy Fernandez, Denver Nuggets 2012 salary $Not Available
Jose Calderon, Toronto Raptors 2012 salary $10,561,982
Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies 2012 salary $13,891,359
Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City Thunder 2012 salary $2,253,062
Total $45,706,403
France had 5 NBA players:
Kevin Seraphin, Washington Wizards 2012 salary $1,797,600
Nicolas Batum, Portland TrailBlazers 2012 salary $10,825,000
Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs 2012 salary $12,500,000
Boris Diaw, San Antonio Spurs 2012 salary $4,500,000
Ronny Turiaf, Miami Heat 2012 salary $854,389
Total $30,476,989
Brazil had 4 NBA players:
Leandrinho Barbosa, Indiana Pacers 2012 salary $854,389
Anderson Varejao, Cleveland Cavaliers 2012 salary $8,368,182
Nene Hilario, Washington Wizards 2012 salary $13,000,000
Tiago Splitter, San Antonio Spurs 2012 salary $3,944,000
Total $26,166,571
Argentina had 3 NBA Players on their squad:
Luis Scola, Houston Rockets 2012 salary $4,148,510
Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs 2012 salary $14,107,492
Carlos Delfino, Milwaukee Bucks 2012 salary $3,000,000
Total $21,256,002
Russia had 1 NBA player:
Timofey Mozgov, Denver Nuggets 2012 salary $3,140,429
Australia had 1 NBA player:
Patrick Mills, San Antonio Spurs 2012 salary $1,085,120
Great Britain had 1 NBA player:
Luol Deng, Chicago Bulls 2012 salary $13,305,000
Lithuania had 1 NBA player:
Linas Kleiza, Toronto Raptors 2012 salary $4,600,000
Nigeria had 1 NBA player:
Al-Farouq Aminu, New Orleans Hornets 2012 salary $2,947,800
As you can see from this data, there were 34 NBA players representing the NBA in the 2012 London Olympic Games. More than any other professional basketball league in the world. The data also shows how much money in salaries those players represented. The big winner besides the U.S. Basketball Federation is Spain. The players for the Spanish National team commanded $45,000,000 in annual salary.
How does this translate to medals? Well, it took a roster of $184,000,000 in salaries to win the gold medal. Spain received the silver medal with $45,706,000 in salaries. Argentina lost the bronze medal with $21,256,000 in salaries. Maybe, the true winners were the Russians, winning bronze with one NBA player, who plays for the Denver Nuggets, and gets $3,000,000 in annual salary.
The NBA has come a long way since I was a kid (I’m 44 years old). It is to the point that the NBA can hold their own international competition and bypass the Olympics.
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