Tim Duncan can't believe he just left that much money on the table (Getty Images)

There are unfortunate realities that capped-out NBA teams have to suffer through as they head from one capped-out season to the next. Changing the face of a franchise is no easy task When attempting to switch personnel while over the salary cap, you're more or less stuck with what you had last season. Luckily for the San Antonio Spurs, they finished last season with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. And, luckily for Spurs fans, Duncan's willingness to cut his pay in half next season will allow the team to keep all three and retain help for the aging trio.

The massive pay cut Duncan took likely represents the last contract of his NBA career — from $21.16 million in 2011-12 to $9.65 million in 2012-13. It's a move that helps the Spurs vie for a championship in his waning years nearly as much as Duncan's play helped win titles at his  peak.

And it didn't go unnoticed by the great Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News:

After being the third-highest paid player in the league last season, behind only Lakers star Kobe Bryant ($25.24 million) and Boston's Kevin Garnett ($21.25 million), Duncan next season will be the fourth-highest paid Spur.

Nate Robinson takes in the relatively safer Lakers/Thunder contest last May (Getty Images)

Nate Robinson has skirted controversy in his NBA career before, but it's been NBA-level controversy — taking part in a silly brawl against the Denver Nuggets in the 2005-06 season, annoying viewers with his endless attempts during Slam Dunk contest wins, and feuding with Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni during the 2009-10 campaign. Nothing of any real life significance. Luckily, that streak is continuing for Nate, even after he was at the scene of a scary scene at Rucker Park on Wednesday night.

Robinson was at a tournament as a fan when a fight that led to gunfire broke out. Happily for all, no life-threatening injuries resulted, and Robinson left the contest unscathed. From the New York Daily News:

Gunfire erupted around 10 p.m. at the Holcombe Rucker Park court on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near W. 155th St. after a dispute during a game for the Entertainers Basketball Classic, witnesses said.

The Knicks paid over $45 million in luxury tax penalties the year this picture was taken (Getty Images)

The idea of a luxury tax to rein in excessive NBA spending was proposed during the extended 1998-99 NBA lockout. Players wanted to retain "Bird Rights," which allowed teams to go over the salary cap to re-sign players. With no real hard cap in place, the NBA responded by bargaining in a second soft cap of sorts with a luxury tax — a dollar for dollar penalty that would be distributed amongst all non-tax-paying teams at the end of the season, only if the NBA met certain income requirements. It was first instituted in 2000-01, though the NBA didn't meet those requirements, and the tax wasn't collected that year or in 2004-05.

With a new and more punitive luxury tax about to hit in a couple of years, the great Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com (and sometimes The Basketball Jones) has decided to pay tribute to the history of the dollar-for-dollar days, offering up his typically studied answer to the question, "who has paid the most tax?" Actually, we had more than one question heading into this reading, this answered just about all of them, and it's worth pointing out that if you're not using ShamSports as your go-to NBA salary guide and following Mark on Twitter, then you're missing out on quite a bit.

A list of the biggest offenders follows, after the jump.

Kevin Love doesn't have to worry about Andrei Kirilenko's looming defensive presence anymore (Getty Images)

Your Minnesota Timberwolves are a fascinating watch, Wolves fans. Whether behind brilliant or bodaciously bad moves, this team refuses to cobble together a squad in an orthodox manner. The recent culmination of events, as first introduced by Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski and confirmed Wednesday, will be a three-team deal that sends various assets out of Minnesota to clear up enough cap space for the team to sign Andrei Kirilenko, who played in his native Russia last season.

The New Orleans Hornets grab Robin Lopez and the Phoenix Suns acquire some draft picks in this deal, but we'll get to those teams later. They are, even with years of Steve Nash behind them and the craziness of NOLA's run as an NBA-owned team, not nearly as interesting as these Wolves.

Woj is reporting that the Timberwolves have cleared up enough space to agree on a two-year, $20 million contract with Kirilenko. The second year of that deal, that will begin months after AK turns 32, will be a player option. We're pretty sure he'll pick it up.

Anywhere Gilbert Arenas lays his head is his home. (Getty Images)

When former Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas signed a gigantic $111 million contract extension back in the summer of 2008, we sharply disagreed with the move, while giving a knowing nod to Arenas' reputation as the NBA's lovable goofball prince. Undeterred, Arenas set to spending that money and enhancing that reputation by beginning construction on a massive D.C.-area mansion complete with a grotto, an infamous shark tank (that cost $5,000 a month in maintenance bills), seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and a couple of "sitting rooms" that sit between bedrooms and bathrooms that Gilbert clearly didn't use much as his knees (and reputation) fell apart over the years since.

Things bottomed out in 2011-12 for Gil, as he sat on the end of the bench in Memphis, two teams away from Washington and working for a minimum salary after hitting the waiver wire in late 2011. The contract has finally run its course, Gilbert's time in the NBA is likely done, and soon after the last of that confetti was swept away, Arenas put his mansion up for sale. According to his realtors, it can be yours for $3.5 million.

Via D.C. Sports Bog, Deadspin, SB Nation and Mouse on House you can now look at the mansion that once held so much promise. So much promise of shark and bikini but mostly shark grotto parties. Click the jump for a few pictures of the one-time palace:

Most fun exhibition game ever. (Getty Images)

Everybody's disco dancing! Lots of fun, good times for all! I am having very good time! Robot dancing? Oh, no, wait, that's just Pau Gasol. Sorry. (You can understand the mistake, though, yes?)

Seriously: International exhibitions that end with 22-point decisions and giant explosions of confetti following the final whistle seem like just about the best (if most surprisingly ridiculous) kind of exhibitions there can be. Great job, Spain!

Best caption wins Kool AND the Gang, for the price of just Kool! You can't beat that with a wiffle-ball bat! Good luck.

In our last adventure: INTO THE PAST! Charles Barkley sees a future Argentinian superstar in the bald spot of one unassuming NBA referee.

Jerry Reinsdorf never forgot his Ozzie Guillen-translating glasses (Getty Images)

We're aware that this is our second consecutive day of pointing you toward signs of something that can never be fully proven, that Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf cares far more for his baseball team than his basketball one. This wouldn't be a problem in the slightest if Reinsdorf wasn't declining to pass on investing the considerable profits the basketball team has made him over the last nearly three decades, while spending freely on a baseball club with a payroll that only recently dipped below the $100 million mark after several years above it.

We're also aware that the Chicago Bulls are set to pay the luxury tax this year, and have housed their fair share of maximum level contracts (four, if you count Michael Jordan's $30 and $31 million deals from 1996-97 and 1997-98, and Derrick Rose's incoming deal; alongside Ben Wallace and Carlos Boozer) over the years, that Reinsdorf is more than generous in several Bulls-related areas that he doesn't have to be, and that we have no real business telling this man what to do with his money. Still, Bulls and even basketball fans can't be pleased to see a since-deleted tweet sent out from the White Sox's official account, purportedly quoting Reinsdorf on Tuesday, as expertly detailed by SB Nation's Ricky O'Donnell:

(Courtesy SB Nation)

Yi Jianlian reportedly has a new reason to smile. (Getty Images)

News broke Tuesday that Chinese Olympic officials planned to choose an athlete to bear the nation's flag in Friday's Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics based on several criteria — whether he/she has "an impressive record in sports [and is] tall, handsome and influential." The pronouncement led many in the media to wonder if five-year NBA veteran Yi Jianlian — the 6-foot-11, 24-year-old leader of the Chinese men's national basketball team, which opens play in Group B of the Olympic tournament against medal favorite Spain on Sunday — would follow in the footsteps of iconic former national teammate Yao Ming, who carried the flag in 2004 and 2008.

Because you are reading an NBA blog, you know why that struck me as sort of weird:

Yi is certainly big enough at nearly 7 feet tall, but an, um, undistinguished NBA career that saw him go from sixth overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft to little-used bench player in just five years could mean he runs afoul of that "impressive record in sports" criterion. Plus, Yi would pale in comparison to Chinese basketball star Yao Ming [...] downgrading from "greatest basketball player in our nation's history" to "widely acknowledged bust" seems kind of weird, optics-wise.

Shows how much I know.

Multiple Chinese media outlets reported Wednesday that Yi has, in fact, been chosen to lead the Chinese Olympic delegation in the Parade of Athletes portion of Friday's festivities. The selection continues a 28-year tradition of basketball players as Chinese flag-bearers at the Summer Games, with Yi poised to follow in the footsteps of Yao (2004, 2008), Liu Yudong (1996, 2000), Song Ligang (1992), Song Tao (1988) and Wang Libin (1984).

Again, from an NBA fan's perspective, Yi seems like he doesn't really fit the "internationally successful/influential" mold, because we're much more familiar with his virtual disappearance from the NBA scene. But this is where we should probably remember that there's a big world outside the confines of our 30 favorite and least favorite teams.