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Basketball: astronomical salary, bad temper … Who is Mike James, the new star of Monaco?

His name is James. He is American, a basketball player and played in the NBA. No, we’re not talking about LeBron here, who remains a Los Angeles Lakers player. The one who joins AS Monaco this Friday is called Mike James. The 31-year-old point guard comes straight from Brooklyn and the Nets. A few months ago, he was still playing with Kevin Durant, the (triple) Olympic champion who won the Blues this summer in Tokyo.

Yes and so ? Another former NBA in the French Championship renamed this season “Betclic Élite”? Yes but not only because with this James, Monaco breaks his piggy bank and offers him the highest salary ever offered for a basketball player in France. For James, we are talking about a salary of 1.4 million euros net over the nine months of the season, or about 155,000 euros per month, while until then, the highest incomes in the French championship (Guerschon Yabusele, Moustapha Fall, Charles Kahudi at Asvel) signed last season at 300,000 euros per year, or 25,000 euros per month net. For James, it’s five times more.

So why such an amount spent for this player? Several reasons explain it. First, because AS Monaco is owned by a Ukrainian billionaire Sergei Dyadechko who can afford it.

Then, winner of the Eurocup in the spring, the principality’s club is playing in the Euroleague and the Basketball Champions League this season and wants to look good. The Euroleague is a competition contested in the form of a championship in parallel with that in France, which requires the playing of more than 50 matches for the teams qualified in the final. Better to have a lot of (good) players to combine the two competitions.

Then, Mike James always said he wanted to come to Monaco. He declared in 2020: “I would like to play in Monaco. Heard it’s a beautiful place! I know they’re not in the Euroleague but maybe I’ll go there to finish my career, when I’m not as good as I am today. Fans will appreciate the last words.

Game star in Europe

Finally, Mike James is especially not a player like the others. Passed by Phoenix, New Orleans and Brooklyn, he did not leave an unforgettable mark in the NBA. But he is a star of the game in Europe and especially in the Euroleague, where he was the top scorer during the 2018-2019 season. Coveted this summer by the Lakers to strengthen their bench, James has played in some of the biggest clubs on the continent: Panathinaikos, which Monaco will face on October 30, Milan and CSKA Moscow. With the Russian team at the start of last season, the pocket leader (1.85m) was around 20 points on average. In Monaco, James will take the lead with Frenchman Leo Westermann back in France after 6 seasons abroad. On paper, the team holds up and Monaco should hurt.

Big concern, however, Mike James has the reputation of having a pig character and being totally unmanageable. CSKA Moscow fired him at the start of the year for incompatibility of mood. James took the opportunity to do a freelance in the great suburbs of New York. For his coming to the Rock to be a success, he will have to get on with another very strong character: the coach of the Roca Team, Zvezdan Mitrovic. And that is not won.

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One Response

  1. I played on the AS Monaco Team in 1968-1968 and am so pleased to be able to watch some of the games. It was very difficult to play there then because most of the player began playing so late in age.
    It is so interesting to observe Mike James movement from Portland, Oregon to Monaco because my own trek went from Monaco to Portland, Oregon where there where several very good players like Willie and Charlie Stautelmeire.
    Perhaps I will get the opportunity to visit Monaco encore..Bon Chance!

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