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Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward Blake Griffin could see his paycheck grow substantially larger in the wake of Kevin Love's hand injury, which will keep the Minnesota Timberwolves' lead man out for roughly six weeks.
Griffin has specific incentives in his contract that award him $15 million in bonuses if he starts in the 2013 NBA All-Star game or make second team All-NBA, according to SB Nation's Clips Nation blog.
Love is a threat to both of those achievements for Griffin as a perennial All-Star himself and a stat-filling machine. When healthy, he figures to be a legitimate threat to Griffin in terms of reaching those incentives. The injury and subsequent missed time will open the door for Griffin to easily obtain one of those criteria.
Other forwards in the Western Conference such as Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge and Dirk Nowitzki surpassing Griffin in the fan voting for the All-Star contest is an unlikely scenario, and the injury to Love all but certainly ensures Griffin's bonus.