Thursday, December 20, 2012

How Many NBA Players played in the 2012 London Olympics?

     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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