NBA General Manager Salary- Duties and Responsibilities

Every team in the NBA has a general manager assigned a particular set of responsibilities—as for the sections where the players’ mentoring is the coach’s responsibility, likewise mentoring and maintaining the smooth flow of team management is the responsibility of a general manager. According to S.B. Nation, the salary of an NBA General Manager ranges between 1 million to 3 million a year depending upon the experience they hold. Suppose the general manager is in his entry-level phase. In that case, they are expected to pocket around 80,000 $ a year. In contrast, someone who has worked his way around the league for more than five years is expected to bag about 11 million dollars annually. Here, we’ll see What is NBA General Manager Salary?

The Highest Paid General Managers In The League

1. Pat Riley: Pat Riley is the Miami Heat Team President and G.M. He is proclaimed as one of the most wealthy and decorated coaches of all time. His remarkable achievements encompass being named NBA coach of the year in three instances; 1990, 1993, and 1997. In addition, he has served as head coach of an NBA all-megastar crew nine instances. As president, Riley signed massive players in LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade, among many others, prevailing the 2012 and 2013 NBA titles. With a tangible net worth of over $80 million, Riley is the pleasant-paid G.M. predicted to take home well over $11 million by the end of 2016.
2. R.C Bufford: R.C. Bufford is the General Manager for the San Antonio Spurs. Most recent awards include the NBA Executive of the year award for the 2013-2014 and the 2014-2015 seasons. With his consistent deliverance, he transformed the spurs into one of the leading franchises in the league and is expected to bag not less than 9 million a year in his serving years.
3. Bob Myers: Robert Michael “Bob” Myers is the present-day General Manager for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. In 2011 He started his General Manager profession with the Golden State Warriors in what could turn out to be a brilliant pass. Having signed a contract extension with the Warriors till the 2017-2018 season ends, Bob will take home a cool $8 million in profits and bonuses by the end of the year.

Role of a General Manager

The team’s general manager plays one of the most crucial roles in most aspects of the group.

1. Managing brands and the market world: All the sponsors for the team and other such market work are all managed by the team’s general manager. The general manager decides which brand or organization is good for the team to become a sponsor. The ads for the brand, which the players do, are also under the eye of the general manager.
2. Placing a perfect piece in the Puzzle: The above term is related to player recruitment. The general manager has to observe the player recruit him closely. There are instances where a player’s skills are on a very different level, but he cannot cope with the team, and that teamwork thing is missing. In those situations, the player’s talents are wasted, and so is the team’s money. So the general manager has to be very team-specific in choosing players to recruit.
3. The Convincing Mission: There are times when a team is seriously struggling in the league, and some big guns are required to fill the void and try to get close to the championship. To achieve this, the general manager has to look and reach out to the players at the end of their contract with the particular team and convince them to join the group. It is one of the most challenging tasks as every team reaches out to the star player and wants to be stronger.
4. Contract setting: There are many cases when a player is interested in playing for the team but expecting a more extended contract, or everything is in order. Still, a player wants to get paid more. Therefore, the general manager must work around such issues and make sure that the player who can make the team strong must be recruited.
5. Dealing with the internal issues: The contract is limited for every player, so there comes a time when a player has to sign again with the team or leave and be a part of a new team. All these discussions are held in the office of a general manager. He instructs about a new contract and the payscale they are going to offer the players at their contract expiration. The general manager has to raise the pay if the player is significant for the team or take a hard hit for the whole season by letting that player go.
6. A friend to the roster: A general manager is someone players can discuss if they do not feel like being a part of the team anymore and other trading issues. Then, it is up to the manager to trade the player or convince him to stay by looking up options that suit the player. When the team is consistently dealing with losses, he sits with players to sort out the best possible chance to get to the winning track. Then, the players suggest which big gun to recruit or look for, and it is the task of a general manager to get that big gun in his team. Now for this again, a lot of convincing and salary issues are involved. Still, for the benefit of the group, he has to listen to the player’s demands.

Quick View of the Duties of a General Manager

• Overseeing daily operations of the commercial enterprise unit or company, including the production, pricing, income, or distribution of merchandise.
• Creating and implementing growth techniques.
• Setting essential overall performance desires.
• Hiring key personnel and overseeing education applications.
• Evaluating and figuring out upon investments in equipment, infrastructure, and those.
• Reporting critical effects to senior executives.
• Reviewing economic statements, income, or different performance statistics to degree productiveness.
• Identifying regions desiring cost reduction or method development.
• Directing income, advertising, or customer support sports.

How to Become an NBA General Manager?

To become an NBA General Manager means managing all that happens within a league. So it would be pretty easy to guess that you should have a basic understanding of the game to be eligible for the role.

Although here are stepwise details to get into the game of becoming a General manager of an NBA team:

• Start as a player: The most significant opportunity for the role is first to play the game. By playing the game, you know what happens within the league and how you can get to the place you desire. By playing in the league, you also develop internal connections, which help you be a general manager.
• Have a good set of qualifications on papers: How qualified you will directly assess you as a topmost candidate for the role. Having a degree in law or MBA helps a lot to pursue this job. It is not tough to understand why it is so significant. Suppose you are someone holding a law degree. In that case, you can ultimately be a pro player at negotiations during trade and other such things as signing a contract with a brand. If you hold an MBA degree, you would better know about marketing and take the team to a healthy capital place.
• Know the game: Gather as much information as you can about the game. If your roots are not strong in the field, then it will surely hurt you in the long run of the job.
• Learn player scouting: As mentioned earlier, one of the critical roles of an NBA general manager is to trade players. For this, you have to closely observe the player stats and everything you can know about him. Only when you know about the actual caliber of the player is time you can get him on board and will serve the team well in the future.

Key Points to Become an NBA General Manager

• Degree in commercial enterprise control or a master’s in enterprise management.
• Good know-how of various business functions.
• Strong leadership features.
• Excellent communique capabilities.
• Highly organized.
• Strong work ethic.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Meticulous attention to element.
• Computer literate.
• Proactive nature.

How to prepare yourself for the interview?

Here are some favorite questions that can be asked when you decide to become a General Manager for an NBA team:

Reason for your interest in a particular organization?

Employers want to be sure that you, in reality, have an interest in their business enterprise and want to work for them over different businesses. Therefore, highlight your passion for the organization and the studies you have executed at the employer.

How would you define your leadership style?

Interviewers may ask these questions to see how you communicate about yourself and whether or not you have prior revel in management positions. Take advantage of this possibility by explaining any beyond reports and then really and humbly expressing your strengths.

How would you describe your mentoring skills?

Coaching and mentoring crew members will be a crucial factor in serving as a well-known manager. Highlight a scenario in which you effectively led and inspired someone to make effective changes in their life.

Your role in any successful project you worked on with a team?

Being capable of efficiently working on a team is critical to touchdown a trendy supervisor role. Employers want to recognize that you can’t most effectively work nicely with others but that you can also step up inside a group by taking the initiative.

Your way of criticizing the team member about the performance?

A popular supervisor is answerable for giving consistent, effective comments to crew contributors, so describe a scenario wherein you provided beneficial positive criticism on their work performance.

Jerry Krause: The Face of Hardships

If you for a second had a thought that a general manager would be popular and loved by the public and also bagsed a considerable amount and lives in peace, then you are incredibly wrong. Jerry Krause was the general manager of the Chicago Bulls at their peak when they had the legendary Michael Jordan and were retaining championships after championships. Although the team was in pretty good shape, the internal hardships were never more minor. Having such a famous player in the group means you have to build a strong reputation for the team for the market, and it requires a lot of struggles.

The Negotiation Rumors: 

It was viral news of that time and is also mentioned in the Netflix series “The Last Dance” that Scottie Pippen, another great player of the team and played a vital role in the victory road, was paid a lot lesser amount than he deserved. Unfortunately, there was no clarification in public as to why such a thing was practiced, but Jerry had to bear harsh words and hatred from the crowd.

Last year for Phil Jackson: 

At the start of 1997, Krause mentioned that it was the last year for head coach Phil Jackson with the bulls. It is not a hidden fact that players get emotionally attached to the team coach, and so was the case with Phil Jackson. Michael Jordan even said that “if it’s the last year for Phil, then I am heading out too.” Although it is a much lesser-known fact that it was Krause only who introduced Phil into the team, a general manager has to think for the team’s future and has to make some hard decisions. Unfortunately, this was also the instance when Jerry was largely criticized.

Team building was the motto: 

Jerry Krause had an idea to build an entirely new team for the bulls as star players like Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan; even Dennis Rodman was on the verge of leaving the group. For starters, the decision was going in Jerry’s favor. He drafted Tony Kukoc, who turned out to be a perfect fit for the team but later in the ’20s, the team failed, and so failed Jerry. Well, no one can predict that his decisions were wrong or right. Even if any other person were at his place, maybe he would have gone with the same choice to build a new team, but the crowd only looks for results, and they were disappointing. This instance took all the goodwill of Krause away, and it never came back.

Conclusion

Although every job in the league is important, from being a player to being a coach or even a game referee, one of the most challenging jobs is being a General Manager of the team. It is a fact that you will never be someone who will receive affection from the fans. The primary reason is the trading of players; it is a fact that no player plays for the same team for his entire career, and when a loved player or a star player has to leave the team, it all lands on the General Manager. No one is interested in the reason; all they know is that you are the one who traded the player. This fact cannot be denied that the pay a General Manager receives is pretty healthy. Still, you have to make peace for not being loved and being portrayed as a “sweet villain” in the league.

FAQs

1. What is the average age of the general manager of the team?
   The average age of the general managers in the league is around 50. Only a few are there who are below that line.
   
   
2. How Hard is it to become an NBA General Manager?
   As mentioned above, if you are a player in the league, there are more chances for you to rise to a general manager position in the coming years, so the tricky part is to join a team as a player. To sum it up, every job is tough to get a holdoff and pretty much is the case in this job.
   
   
3. Is it possible to be a General manager and the head coach of the team at the same time?
   Yes, it is possible. According to a report, “For a few years in U.S. Expert sports, coaches regularly served as general managers for their groups as nicely, determining which players would be kept on the crew and which ones brushed off, and even negotiating the terms of their contracts in cooperation with the possession of the group. In truth, many sports activities teams within the early years of U.S. Expert sports activities had been coached via the owner of the crew, so in a few instances, the same person served as owner, well-known supervisor, and head coach.”