Fox Sports had quite the interesting column/slide show recently. They tried to determine which players in the NBA are worth "max money." If you have not read this already, be prepared for a surprise.

Citing economic conditions, as well as players' past, present and future worth to their teams, the author(s) settled on five players who were worth max dollars. Among those not making the cut:

Pierce, Gasol, Bosh, Melo, Dirk, Duncan, Chris Paul, D. Williams, Roy, Durant

Now some of these guys, I can understand being on the "not max-level player" list. Others could easily have a case made in their favor. Duncan is only one example who has given, and still gives, enough to be considered a max player. If they want to argue his age and a slight decline mean that he shouldn't get $100 M over the next 5 years, so be it. If they want to take the angle that what he did in the past should not factor into what he is paid in the future, fine. However the man is still more productive than all but a few players in the league.

Now that that's out of the way, I will spare you the details of what's great about Dirk or CP or D-Will and why they deserve their dough. Instead I will leave you with a link that will show you who these experts thought were max players. Some were obvious, while one in particular, a man whose career is often linked w/Duncan's, was a bit of a headscratcher.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/pgStory?contentId=9839674#sport=NBA&photo=9840882

Who do you think should be on this list? What do you think of the list from this link?