Even Athletes Take Their Cuts

By Sean Gregory

Mia Hamm did it to save her league. The all-time top scorer in international soccer joined 18 other U.S. female stars in taking a pay cut--in her case a 29% drop, to $60,000--to keep the Women's United Soccer Association alive. Bob Knight did it out of shame. The Texas Tech basketball coach gave back his $250,000 base salary to pay penance for his team's disappointing 16-11 regular-season record. Yes, folks, even the money-charged world of big-time sports is getting into the salary-cutting game.

In Major League Baseball, the median player salary is down 10% this season. Pitcher Kenny Rogers declined a two-year, $10 million offer from the Texas Rangers, thinking his 3.84 earned-run average would attract a better deal. Instead, he's pitching for the Minnesota Twins on a one-year, $2 million contract. "We're competing for a stretched entertainment dollar," says Cleveland Indians general manager Mark Shapiro, whose payroll is down 44% from 2001.

In basketball, a less lucrative TV deal this season caused the NBA to lower its salary cap for the first time in the cap's 18-year history. "We're much less likely to give someone a maximum contract than we were a few years ago," says an NBA executive.

Even football, with its healthy TV ratings, saw little salary growth last year. Stars will still get big raises in major sports, consultant Marc Ganis says, but the athletic "middle class" will not. Gone are the days when Chris Dudley--a 7-ft. lumberer who once missed 19 straight free throws--could sign a $28 million deal. --By Sean Gregory