Houston Rockets: Would Les Alexander Ever Pay The Luxury Tax?

The decision has been made. And we shall know shortly what the fate of the Houston Rockets will be.

LeBron James has decided to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers and a happening similar to the Butterfly Effect theory will start to take place like a crashing wave across the league.

Now that James has decided where he will spend the rest of the career, the Rockets have some important decisions to make.

Those decisions will involve retaining one player in Chandler Parsons and acquiring an available free agent.

But there’s one question that all Rockets fans want to know.

Would Leslie Alexander ever pay the luxury tax if spending went over the team cap?

My answer to that is YES!

He even so much as said so when he talked with the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen last year:

“I have enough money, but I don’t have enough championships,” Alexander told Feigen. “If you’re not in it to win championships, you shouldn’t be in it.”

With the exciting rumors that were flying that Chris Bosh was to be a Houston Rocket, there was a strong possibility that Alexander would have to pay it if the scenario also involved retaining Parsons.

“I have enough money, but I don’t have enough championships.” — Les Alexander

The league just released a few days ago the new salary cap figures for the 2014-15 season with the cap increasing to $63.1 million — $5 million above last season’s figure of $58.7 million.

That means the currently luxury tax threshold is at $76.8 million up from last season’s figure of $71.7 million.

In the past and up to two seasons ago, if a team spent over the predetermined amount, then the team would pay an additional tax that is worth dollar-for-dollar dependent on how much they are over.

This was no sweat for owners with insanely deep pockets to spend money!