McMillan knows what A-Rod feels like, sort of

  • Larry Henry / Sports Columnist
  • Monday, December 18, 2000 9:00pm
  • Sports

SEATTLE – Nate McMillan still remembers his first paycheck in the NBA.

Still remembers holding it in his hands. Still remembers sitting and staring at it.

All those numbers. It must have seemed as if they marched across the entire length of the paper.

“I looked at it for a long time,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.

“It was – what? – $4,000. Forty-six hundred? Something like that. It was every two weeks and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Wow, this is great.’ “

It was 1986, he was a rookie with the SuperSonics and he was flush. One hundred thousand dollars. That’s what he would make that year. Huge money for a kid who grew up on the other side of the tracks from wealth.

You remember what you did with your first big payday? Maybe the same thing McMillan did.

“I went out and got me a car,” he said. “My first car.”

I did the same thing. Only my check was for considerably less than his. I bought a Chevrolet Nova.

I doubt that Nate settled for anything quite so pedestrian. And why should he? He was young, he was rich, he’d worked hard to get where he was. He deserved something extraordinary.

He still looks back on that time thinking it “unbelievable” that anyone would pay him that kind of money to play basketball.

Life got even more incredible. In his final year as a player, 1997-98, McMillan reached the peak of his earnings, $3.5 million.

He sat and stared at his first check that year, too. The money had changed but not his expression. “It was for more than $100,000 and I’m saying, ‘Wow,’ ” he said. “It took me forever to show my family because I figured if I showed them, it’d be like, ‘Boy, you’re rich.’ “

You wonder if Alex Rodriguez will sit and stare at his first paycheck from the Texas Rangers. You wonder if he’ll shake his head and exclaim, “Wow.”

“I’ve seen guys’ contracts where their total pay is a half-million in one check,” McMillan, the new coach of the Sonics, said as he sat in his office before a game last week. “I was just thinking about A-Rod and his contract the other day. You’re talking $2 million a month. Wow. Two mill a month.”

Two mill a month? Try four. The baseball season runs six months.

“The media are not going to be able to write a story without mentioning the fact that that contract is out there,” McMillan said.

Come on, Nate, we’re not that tough.

But did we mention the fact that if Rodriguez next summer reaches his average for the last five seasons, it’ll mean each hit is worth $135,869; each home run, $694,444; and each RBI, $219,298?

“He really has to have great seasons each year or he will be criticized,” McMillan said. “If he doesn’t live up to the standard that he’s put out there, even the standard that he’s put out there for this contract, they’re going to look for that standard to go up even higher. It can be something that comes back to haunt him because there’s so much money involved.”

Did anyone mention that every strikeout will be worth $227,272? Not that we’d ever bring it up.

“I’m sure A-Rod is just as shocked as we are,” Nate the Great said, referring to the $25.2 million-a-year bonanza. “Even though that number was out there, for him to actually get that and sign it, I know he’s shocked. He’s sitting there just like us saying: ‘I can’t believe this is happening for the next 10 years.’ I’m sure he’s putting pressure on himself, probably as soon as he gets settled in, to make sure he’s in shape and all that other stuff. I mean he has to, there’s no way he can just sit there and say, ‘I’m worth this. I deserve this.’ “

I’m sure that when Vin Baker got his $87 million contract, that’s what he did: Rushed right out to the nearest gym and started working out.

You bet.

I do know that when Nate McMillan was playing, he was in shape when he came in the gym the first day of practice. And he stayed in shape through the last day of the season. And in between, he did everything in his power to win ballgames.

And he didn’t get any $25 million – even for his entire career.

“Contracts weren’t really the thing that motivated me,” he said. “I’ve always felt that I was making unbelievable money, even my first year at $100,000.”

McMillan always tried to give effort equal to his pay. Thus, for many years, he was underpaid. “If they were paying me $5 million a year, then I would have had some problems,” he said. “I would probably have felt that I wasn’t living up to my contract.”

If there had been any way to give $5 million worth of sweat, he would have found it.

It had to frost McMillan to see guys who were making big money not give an honest try. “I’ve seen that happen,” he said, “but we’re coming at a different number now. We’re coming at $250 million. That number, in basketball, you’re supposed to be bringing in titles, and I’m sure they’re thinking about World Series there (in Texas). They need to make something drastically happen soon for that ballclub.

“There’s pressure, there’s no question about it. Even if he’s injured, they’ll say, ‘The guy’s on the injured list making this.’ So his contract will always be written next to his name in any sentence you say A-Rod.”

You mean, if he plays his average of 145 games, someone will write, “Rodriguez earns $172,241 every time he steps on the field?”

Nah, we’d never do that.

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