Thread: Lakers to pay hefty luxury tax

Six NBA teams have been billed for luxury-tax payments they owe for last season's payrolls, according to official league figures obtained by ESPN.com on Tuesday night.

And the heftiest, not surprisingly, belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers will be forced to pay more than $29 million in luxury tax for a team that -- thanks to a steady stream of injuries and L.A.'s well-chronicled chemistry problems -- barely squeaked into the playoffs and will go down as one of the biggest underachievers in league history.

The figures, distributed late Tuesday to the league's 30 teams, reveal the Miami Heat ($13.35 million), Brooklyn Nets ($12.88 million), New York Knicks ($9.96 million), Chicago Bulls ($3.93 million) and Boston Celtics ($1.18 million) join the Lakers ($29.26 million) in facing tax bills for their 2012-13 payrolls.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/94...tax-29-million

Miami isn't that far over. I'm a little surprised.

So is the tax the Lakers are paying worth more than the rock Kobe bought his wife during the rape case?