<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The day before he left for Jazz training camp in Boise, Robert Whaley found an envelope with a check in it taped to his locker. Made out to him. For more than $1,200. With no explanation. "It was great. I didn't know what it was, but everyone got them," Whaley said, shaking his head. "I thought it was just free money." It was, sort of. Amazing as it may sound in a league where even the minimum-wage scrubs earn more than $4,400 per game, NBA players are compensated in plenty of other ways, too. When they are traded, their new teams pick up moving expenses and six weeks of hotel bills. When they feel tense, the team's traveling masseuse kneads the kinks out of their muscles. When they need shoes, various companies inundate them with free goods. And best of all, the players say - when they travel, the team hands out meal money. "It's crazy how much they give us," said fellow Jazz rookie C.J. Miles. "They give us money to eat on the road, and then they give us food, too." The collective-bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players association spells out the rules for per-diem: Each player is due $102 for every day the team is on the road. It's broken down even more specifically, based on what time the team departs from or arrives back home. If the team isn't in Salt Lake, each player is allotted $18.36 for breakfast, $28.56 for lunch and $55.08 for dinner. </div> <div align="center">Source</div>
