Celtics Basketball: Who made more?

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Earlier this summer, Kevin Garnett became the richest player in NBA history.

Of course, we're talking pure on-court earnings here. If we expand the conversation to outside income we'd have to factor in things like MJ's Nike money and Rashad McCants' acting career and at the point KG's a little out of his league.

But in terms of total NBA salary, no one's made more than Garnett, who's now in the books for a cool 328,562,398.

Shaq is second at 292,198,3273. Kobe Bryant is third at 279,738,062. And if you want to read more about the top 100 Moneymakers in NBA History, you can do so in this post from ProBasketballTalkas long as you're prepared to live in a world where David Lee has made more money playing basketball than Michael Jordan.

Anyway, after staring at the Top 100 list for a while, I've come up with an extremely stupid game:

Which former Celtic had the higher career earnings? (Source: Basketball Reference)

So the game is easy. I present you with two former Celtics, and you guess which guy made more money over the course of his career.

Answers are at the bottom.

1. Who made more: Acie Earl or Kedrick Brown?

Here are three Acie Earl basketball cards to help you think.

2. Ron Mercer or Rick Fox?

Remember, no counting the money Fox made doing this.

3. Dee Brown or Pervis Ellison?

I definitely wasn't watching the night Pervis turned into a zombie.

4. Vin Baker or Gary Payton?

Here are the two Sonics posing with the West squad at the 1998 All-Star Game. I see you, Nick Van Exel.

5. Raef LaFrentz or Wally Szczerbiak?

I can only find one picture of these two together on the "Internet." Fitting that it's a shot of Wally crumpled up in heap while Raef labors to bend down and lend a hand. (And Delonte contemplates what the hell he's got himself into.)

Answers:

1. Kedrick Brown's 7.2M > Acie Earl's 5.2M: I guess it makes sense that the No. 11 pick in 2001 would make more than the No. 19 pick in 1993. Especially since Brown played five seasons compared to Earl's four. I just wasn't sure if Earl's height had duped a general manager into another couple million dollars at the tail end of his career. Oh well. He'll always have April 12, 1996.

2. Ron Mercer 35.2M > Rick Fox 34.03M: In all my days, there are very few Celtics who I enjoyed watching shoot more than Mercer. Off a screen from 17 feet? He was automatic. So automatic that he parlayed that one skill into 35M over eight seasons in the league.
3. Dee Brown's 24.14M > Pervis Ellison's 24.05M: Barn burner! I would have guessed Pervis here because he was never nervous, and also because he was the No. 1 overall pick, a solid rebounder and active during a period of NBA history when Jim McIlvaine was worth 33M over seven years. No dice. Congrats, Dee.
4. Gary Payton's 104M > Vin Baker's 97M: I included this one because I figured everyone would guess Baker based on the commutative property of "Why would he include this question other than to make a point that Vin Baker earned more than Gary Payton?" Don't you feel better now?

5. Raef LaFrentz's 84.1M > Wally Szczerbiak's 74.4M: More depressing than the fact that LaFrentz and Szczerbiak made 158M between them? That combined total is still 7M less than what Jermaine O'Neal has made all by himself.

Rich can be reached at rlevine@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Rich on Twitter at http:twitter.comrich_levine

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