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New York, NY
The Los Angeles Lakers has the heftiest bill for luxury-tax payments among six NBA teams for last season's payrolls with $29.26 million.
They top 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).
The six teams must remit their payment by July 24.
Fifty percent of the total tax of $70.57 million paid by the six teams will be used to fund revenue sharing for the 2012-13 season, according to the 2011 labor agreement. The remaining 50 percent will be distributed in equal shares to each non-taxpaying team.
Each non-taxpaying team will thus receive 1/24th of $35.28 million, or $1.47 million per team.
But their salary-cap situation is projected to improve greatly following the defection of free-agent center Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets and expected release of Metta World Peace.
Waiving World Peace will result in a savings of about $30 million.
The NBA also announced a more punitive scale for breaching salary cap and luxury-tax limits in 2013-14.
The cap is set at $58,679,000, with the luxury tax kicking in above $71,784,000 and will rise incrementally.
The minimum salary level for the upcoming season will be $52,811,000, 90 percent of the regular cap level.
The tax amounts for last season were based on a dollar-for-dollar tax above the per-team threshold of $70.31 million.
Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird said that small market teams like theirs can't afford the tax ramnifications of going over the limits.
