This past week the Detroit Pistons made the decision to let Notre Dame alum Monty Williams go while still owing him $65 million for the remaining years of his contract. Williams made $7.9 million during his NBA playing career.
Add on his years as a NBA coach -- with three head coaching stints in New Orleans, Phoenix and Detroit -- Monty did quite well.
NBA head coaching salaries are rarely made public. Monty was a head coach for nine seasons, before signing his huge contract with the Pistons. Let's assume that Williams made on average $4 million per year (conservative assumption) over those nine seasons as a head coach and $500,000 per season (conservative assumption) during his 7 seasons as an NBA assistant coach.