Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Focus on Joe Johnson’s contract should only intensify in upcoming NBA seasons.

Johnson, the former Little Rock Central/Arkansas Razorback, is owed $89 million over the next four years, and he's used an example of overspending by owners. He's been traded to the Brooklyn Nets from the Atlanta Hawks, meaning he’s joining a team in the nation’s most glaring — an unforgiving — media spotlight and becoming part of a franchise owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and music mogul Jay-Z.

How did the Nets come to acquire Johnson, who makes more annually than LeBron James? Here are the specifics of the deal from Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie NBA blog:

Johnson is off to Brooklyn, now. Traded for a batch of expiring contracts that include Johan Petro, Jordan Williams, Anthony Morrow, and a signed-and-traded DeShawn Stevenson. The Hawks will get a draft pick from Brooklyn; but it's a lottery-protected first rounder via the Houston Rockets that turns into a second round selection in 2017 if Atlanta doesn't use it by then. The Hawks are a playoff team, a squad that was in the second round last year and gave the Boston Celtics all they could handle in the first round in 2012, and they'll get absolutely nothing out of this.

What the Nets get in Johnson — besides the contract — is a six-time All-Star who averaged 18.8 points per game in 2011-12. Johnson, whose playoff experience should be valuable to the rebuilding Nets, has averaged 17.8 points, 4.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds per season in an 11-year career with the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Hawks.

For the record: we get questioning the fiscal responsibility of ownership paying Johnson what he's making. However, it seems silly to criticize Johnson for taking the money, something plenty of folks are doing.

Who do you know that's ever told ownership to keep their raise? Why would anybody expect Johnson to have done that two seasons ago when Atlanta offered him what was the richest free agent contract in NBA history?