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How much do british basketball players earn
British Basketball League Salary (2022)
Home / British Basketball League (BBL) / British Basketball League Salary (2022)
Trying to find out exactly what the British Basketball League (BBL) average salary is, is one of the most frequently researched topics around the UK game. So…
How much are British basketball players paid?
If you want to cut straight to the chase without the background info, based on the British Basketball League salary cap being £250,000 (net), divide that by 12 players and you have an average of £20,833 per year British Basketball League salary.
However, there are other things to take into consideration.
Firstly, though the salary cap is £250,000, it excludes the salaries of the top two British earners on each roster in an effort to retain more British players.
This means, say for the 2019-20 season, on the London Lions, both two-time MVP Justin Robinson and star Ovie Soko’s salaries – two of the highest paid players in the league – will not have counted towards the Lions’ salary cap total.![]()
In theory, that should bring the average BBL player salary up from the stated £20,833, considerably, as some teams will have a payroll of over £250,000.
Additionally, lot of BBL contracts (especially for non-British players) are not 12 months, they are 8-10 (based on the season running from October until May), and along with that BBL player contracts generally include other benefits in kind; such as free accommodation, and a vehicle.
Along with this, of course, not all players are worth the same; some teams will invest considerably more money in the player salary of a star, whilst others will aim to be more balanced across the field.
In a 2020 interview with Hoopsfix, BBL Director and owner of the Sheffield Sharks Yuri Matischen said the average BBL salary is anywhere from £1,000 to £3,000 per month (net after tax), plus of course, benefits in kind such as a house and vehicle.
At the higher end of the scale, Matischen said some players can earn over £50,000 salary in the British Basketball League.
British Basketball League Minimum Salary
There is currently no minimum salary in the British Basketball League.
That allows teams to play young British players should they wish without having to pay them and therefore avoiding potentially costing them NCAA eligibility as a lot of players want to go to the US and play college basketball.
Why is the British Basketball League salary so low?
So why is the salary in the UK basketball league not as high as you would have hoped?
Ultimately, it is because that is all teams can afford.
Though £3,000 plus a car and a house may not seem a lot when compared to the multi-million dollar player salaries in the NBA, that is a good wage to earn a living solely from playing basketball!
BBL franchise owners openly state they would love to be able to pay more but right now, for where the league is, they are unable to.
BBL Director and Sheffield Sharks owner Yuri Matischen said:
“We have lived through the boom and bust of salary inflationary spirals, we’ve employed John Amaechi in our club, we’ve had ex-NBA players – we’ve been and done it all and what we’re trying to do is be financially affordable.
“If people are looking and questioning it and thinking ‘that’s not a lot of money’ – at the moment that’s where the game is. Would we like to pay more? Yes. But we’ve been boom and bust.
“When we had money, in the period where we were receiving money with the NTL deal, we all went boom with salaries and soon went bust.
“We’ve learnt, this is about more than just what you pay salaries, it’s about creating an affordable business plan.
“…Those are the salaries under which we live, it’s there to protect us as clubs, rather than break the bank and find yourself bust after a year or two.”
Former BBL Chairman and current owner of the Newcastle Eagles Paul Blake added:
“Ultimately we can only spend that additional money if we’ve got it, that means I’ve got to sell more tickets and sell more sponsorship.
“I’ll never forget the day that was explained to me in no uncertain terms at an NBA game at the O2 by Mr David Stern, very eloquently, that what we all need to do is sell more tickets and sell more sponsorships and caveat to that, generate a higher price per ticket to increase the revenue.
“Because we will only have a limited number of seats, we’re never have a situation where we have 40,000 seats, we’re a limited audience event in this country so we’ve just got to generate more income that’s the bottom line.”
British Basketball League Salary Cap (2022)
Home / British Basketball League (BBL) / British Basketball League Salary Cap (2022)
Image Credit: ahmedphotos
The British Basketball League salary cap, more commonly referred to as such but officially named the ‘Team Payments Cap’, or TPC, was used to encourage parity across the league and puts a limit on what teams can pay as British Basketball League salaries.
Ahead of the 2022-23 season the Total Payments Cap was completely removed, in the first major move the league formally announced following on from £7million of investment from Miami based investment firm 777 partners in December 2021.
Why was the British Basketball League salary cap removed?
The BBL believes the decision is “the next step to the British Basketball League achieving its goal of becoming a top level European league, with its clubs regularly competing in top level competition.
”
There is an internal expectation that the removal of the TPC will attract bigger investors into the league and franchises.
The league pointed to both the Leicester Riders and London Lions competing in European competition in the 2022-23 season, saying it provides “significant benefits” to all of clubs, as well as playing an instrumental part in the continued accelerated growth of the league off the court.
The statement added:
“Homegrown and British talent is fundamental to the league’s growth and removing the Teams Payment Cap will increase opportunities for homegrown talent to make their mark in the BBL as opposed to moving further afield. This decision also highlights the league’s commitment to providing the most entertaining product for its most important stakeholders, the fans.”
What was the British Basketball League salary cap?
The British Basketball League salary cap – BBL TPC – was previously set at £250,000 per year in the 2021-22 season, up from £200,000 per year in 2018-19.
This is a net figure excluding any benefits in kind players often received such as accommodation or a vehicle and it also any tax due on the payments made to players (both employer and employee).
Ahead of the 2018-19 season, a change to the British Basketball League salary cap was made to exclude the top 2 earning British players on each team in an effort to retain British talent.
It was prompted by the now-defunct London City Royals’ desire to sign GB stars Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Ashley Hamilton, as well as Leicester Riders heading into European competition the Basketball Champions League.
This exclusion of the two top-paid British players’ salaries, could easily take a BBL team’s total player salary bill – if they had the financial means to do so – to over £350,000 net.
Andy Webb, the BBL’s Chief Operating Officer said at the time:
“We have an objective as a league (a set of clubs) to have as many of the best British players playing in the BBL as is possible.
“As such we have changed our Team Payment Cap regulations so that the TPC calculation excludes the top 2 earning British players on each team.”
Why Did the British Basketball League have a salary cap?
The BBL TPC was generally used to keep overall costs down whilst maintaining a competitive balance to prevent more financially well off clubs from dominating.
However, as we have seen in the National Basketball Association (NBA), they can be a major focal point in negotiations between leagues and player unions.
This is due to preventing players being able to negotiate higher salaries even if the team is pulling in significant profits.
But this is not something the BBL had to contend with, with no players union currently existing – despite previous calls for it from the likes of GB captain Kieron Achara.
Instead the TPC was being used to predominantly try and encourage parity across the league.
Studies have shown that salary caps increase competitive balance and decrease overall salary payments within the league, however the resulting effect on social welfare is “counter-intuitive and depends on the preference of fans for aggregate talent and for competitive balance”.
A salary cap will usually result in lower aggregate talent as the best players will play where they can earn the most, but some fans are ok with lower talent if it means the league is more competitive overall.
“We have a Team Payments Cap as we believe it is essential to the ongoing development of the BBL as a League,” BBL Chief Operations Officer Andy Webb previously said.
“In particular to protect and promote the long term strength, competitiveness and viability of the League, and to ensure that the determining factor on the court is primarily sporting merit and not off court financial considerations.
“Or to put another way – we have a set of clubs who are at different stages of their development and as such have different financial capabilities (but of course we wish to maintain a competitive league and don’t want any team spending beyond their means).”
The NBA pays more than football, but the Premier League earns more and competes for subscribers - Wild, wild west - Blogs
Sporting Intelligence conducted a study of the sports market for salaries, TV rights and the popularity of major leagues.
Highlights:
• Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus pay the most;
• The NBA has the highest average salary by league, the Premier League is not even in the top three, and the second is the Indian Super League in cricket;
• Football clubs dominate social media following, Manchester United second only to Spaniards;
• The Premier League is second only to the NFL in terms of TV rights, but receives 48% from abroad;
• NFL with highest attendance, Bundesliga and Premier League in top three;
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus with the highest salaries, but overall dominated by the NBA
Turin jumped into the top three from last year's ninth place. Barça on average pays a first-team player €10m a year, Madrid a little over ninem, Juventus a little over eightm. At the same time, Barça and Real Madrid are not at the top for the first time.
In the top 100 (and in the ranking of 350 clubs from the top leagues in the most popular sports) there are only 21 football clubs, in the top 50 - only 11 (PSG - 12th, Man City - 13th, Bayern - 22nd, Manchester United - 33rd, Atlético - 39th, Liverpool - 41st, Arsenal - 44th, Chelsea - 45th -e).
At the same time, the worst club in the NBA - the New York Knicks (both in terms of salary and in general) pays its players on average more than, for example, Atlético and Liverpool.
Indian cricket clubs are worth mentioning (details below) - there are only eight of them, they fit in the gap between 47th and 58th places. All other leagues are scattered.
NBA highest salaries in the world, second (surprisingly) Indian Super League cricket, Premier League not even in the top three the average in that it more objectively reflects the situation: half receive a salary below this figure, half - above) - 3.7 million euros.
The second league in the world in terms of average salary is the Indian Cricket Super League. Yes, in India, the superstars of a sport that is popular only in the former British colonies and the UK itself, get more top football stars. The average salary here is half as much - a little less than 5 million euros per year, there is no data on the median.
In third place is Major League Baseball, with baseball making about $3.8 million a year, a median four times lower.
At the same time, you need to understand that the NBA and the Indian Super League show annual growth (10-12%), but MLB is slowly slowing down - minus 6% on average. The first football representative is already approaching baseball - the Premier League, the richest football league. Here, on average, they earn about 3.7 million euros, the median salary is about 2.5 million euros per year.
The Premier League is followed by the NFL (a little less than 3 million euros per year - the average salary, about a million - the median), then - the NHL (about 2.5 million euros - the average, 1.8 million - the median). And only behind them are the rest of the football leagues - La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Everywhere, average and median salaries are noticeably lower than in the Premier League. At the same time, American leagues show stable growth in this indicator, with the exception of Major League Baseball.
European football leagues are also growing, but not as fast.
Young goalkeepers are paid much more in Italy, older strikers in Spain
It is obvious that the value of a footballer is made up of various factors, not counting skills: at least his position and age, as well as the league in which he plays. It is clear that the Premier League clubs pay the most - an average of 3.7 million euros per player. One and a half times less in Spain, two times less in Italy and Germany, three times less in France. At the same time, the higher the player acts on the field - from goalkeepers to attackers - the more expensive he is.
Interestingly, the data also varies by position: experienced strikers over 30 are much more expensive than their younger competitors. In Spain, the average salary of an older striker is under 7 million euros a year, a real phenomenon, which, however, can be explained by the presence of Leo Messi in Barcelona. And in Italy, for example, the highest average salary for young goalkeepers (under 23) is more than a million euros per year.
For sure, Gianluigi Donnarumma (and his agent Mino Raiola) should be thanked to a greater extent for this.
Otherwise, everything is stable: the British pay the most, the French the least, and between them come the Spaniards, Italians and Germans.
Football is the most popular: La Liga and the Premier League are tied for first place in terms of subscribers and receive the most from foreign TV rights
The main criterion for popularity is the number of subscribers in the three main social networks of the world: facebook, instagram and twitter. Football unconditionally dominates here: Premier League and La Liga clubs, especially the top 5 in England and the top 3 in Spain, are far ahead of their competitors. At the same time, Barca alone is able to block almost all subscribers of MLB teams.
There are 15 football clubs in the top 20 clubs by subscribers in the world: 6 from England, 3 each from Spain and Italy, 2 from Germany and 1 from France.
Moreover, the top 10 is completely occupied by soccer. The top ten includes four NBA clubs and one Indian cricket club.
At the same time, in total, La Liga and the Premier League are very close to each other, but Spain is slightly ahead due to the unrealistic numbers of Real and Barca - about 500 million subscribers per league. Approximately 325 million for the NBA, NFL and Serie A just below and next to each other, while the Bundesliga shares its position with Major League Baseball, the Indian Super League and League 1.
The money that leagues receive from selling television rights abroad can also speak of popularity. In this regard, England dominates: it has almost 50% - this is income from the sale of television rights abroad (47.5%). Only three percent less in Spain, but the Spaniards lose heavily in the total cost of TV rights. The Premier League is second only to the NFL (€4 billion) in terms of total rights fees among the top leagues (€3.5bn), but the NFL's share of overseas TV rights is less than three percent! American football is almost never watched outside of the United States.
The NFL has the highest average attendance of 67,000 people, but you need to understand that the regular season of the major league of American football is much smaller and shorter than in European football, and besides, the level of all teams here is approximately the same. The second most visited in the world is the Bundesliga (a little over 43 thousand people). In the top three, the Premier League (38,000), the Australian Football League (35,000) and the Japanese National Baseball League (31,000) rounded out the top five. What is funny, the Japanese are ahead of MLB, albeit just a little bit.
NBA and NHL in this ranking lose to all major competitors (average attendance of 17 thousand people each), but this has an objective feature: closed arenas will in any case be much smaller than open ones.
Premier League: Manchester City and Man United top wages, Tottenham out of top 6, Sheffield last the nearest pursuer, a neighbor in the city, a whole million.
There are no more such gaps between teams close in the table.
Liverpool, which is tearing apart the Premier League, is only third - the average salary is a little over six million, then Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton (!) And only then Tottenham and Leicester . In these clubs, the salary is more than four million on average, the rest are lower. The absolute worst in the Premier League is Sheffield, which at the start of the season is trying to wedge itself into the fight for European competition. This is the only team whose average salary is less than a million euros per year.
As for popularity, everything is almost comparable to the budget. The most followed club by social media following is Man United, with a total of 126 million followers, by far the best in England. Next comes Chelsea (81 million), followed by Liverpool, Arsenal (69 million each).million) and Man City (61 million). Of the rest, Tottenham (22 million) and Leicester (11 million) stand out a little, the rest in total will not have subscribers even to Man City.
La Liga: here as usual. There is Barcelona and Real Madrid - and all the rest
Barca and Real Madrid - the first and second sports clubs in the world in terms of salary, so there is no chance here. Atlético's payroll is one and a half times less - just a little less than 6.5 million euros per year. The rest of the Spanish clubs did not even stand close - only the remaining eight teams have an average salary of more than a million, nine teams have less than a million, and Osasuna and Valladolid on average pay less than five hundred thousand. If we discard Atlético, then the average salary in Real Madrid and Barcelona together is higher than in 17 La Liga clubs in total.
The most popular clubs are broadly in line with average salaries – Real Madrid have 223m followers, Barcelona have 213m. These are by far the most popular sports clubs in the world. 27 million - from Atletico, the remaining 17 clubs in total will not even collect Atletico subscribers. Interestingly, Madrid and Barca have a much higher share of followers on Instagram than the British.
Serie A: Juventus are in the lead, but the situation is tighter than in Spain
The situation is similar in Italy, but here on average everything looks closer. The Italians lose only by the fact that there is only Juventus among the super giants, this allows La Liga to get ahead of the competitor in terms of average wages. Plus, in Italy there is no spacer between the second tier and the tops - the gap is almost four times. Otherwise, plus or minus the same, from the surprising - the second in salary Roma (almost 4.5 million euros per year), Inter and Napoli are nearby, Milan are also nearby, Lazio is slightly crosses the threshold of 2 million euros per year. All others are smaller. But in Italy, the average level of teams is still closer - more than a million a year, on average, 14 clubs pay, no one pays less than five hundred thousand.
The number of subscribers in social networks in general corresponds to the ranking in terms of average salaries - Juventus has twice as many fans as the second team (80 million versus 38).
But the second here is Milan - despite the Rossoneri's current plight, the more successful Inter have 15 million fewer subscribers. Roma are also in the big four, but then there is a sharp dip, only Napoli has more than four million (7.9).
Bundesliga: Bayern is the leader, Borussia is the best among equals
Germany also has its own dominator, and it is so obvious that you don't even have to name it. But you have to: Bayern pay 7.5 million euros a year - twice as much as Borussia Dortmund. In the top three in terms of salaries, Bayer, Leipzig and Wolfsburg unexpectedly also step out of two million, but then everything is already more modest. At the same time, only one club pays less than 500 thousand euros per year on average - Paderborn. Five more teams pay less than a million (but in the Bundesliga they are generally 2 less than in the other top leagues, so in general everything is comparable).
The same goes for social media followers. Here, however, the share of Bayern is 60% of all subscribers of the league clubs (73 million).
There is also Borussia, which has about three times fewer fans (27 million), and then the abyss.
France: PSG and no one
The average salary of Parisians is 34% of the average salary for the entire league - almost 8 million euros per year. Monaco, Lyon, Marseille and Lille pay more than a million, everyone else pays less, and eight clubs at once pay less than five hundred thousand.
Hence the popularity: PSG outdid even Bayern – 64% of the entire league fan base in social networks belongs to Paris. Marseille, Monaco and Lyon with a stretch (9 million each for the former and 6 million for the latter) are trying to compete, while the rest of the clubs are much worse.
Photo: Gettyimages.ru/Laurence Griffiths, Robert Cianflone, Fred Lee; REUTERS/Albert Gea, Gonzalo Fuentes
How Much Do NBA Stars Earn? Salary rating-2019 - Blogg on the floor - Blogs
We count other people's millions.
Many people know that the NBA has a salary cap.
It is set at $109.14 million for the 2019/20 season.
But not everyone knows that the salary cap is directly tied to the league's revenue. And with it - the salaries of all players. Basketball players make millions of dollars because the NBA makes billions of dollars.
8.2 billion, to be exact is exactly how much the NBA expects to receive in the coming season in the form of "Basketball-related income" (BRI, basketball-related income). This BRI includes only $400-500 million converted from yuan, so don't worry: even a complete break in relations with China won't take more than five or six percent off the BRI.
Under the 2017 Collective Agreement between the league and the players union, 50%* of BRI goes to players in the form of wages.
* - actually not, but in order not to load the text with nuances, I will explain them in the comments.
There are 510 jobs in the league - each of the 30 teams can apply for 17 people.
51 NBA players - exactly 10% - will receive at least $20 million next season **.
** - and again I suggest going to the comments for those who want abstruseness.
The “Gini coefficient” and other indicators of financial inequality in the NBA as in a single economy look better than the global ones: if in the real world the richest 10% own 75-85% of all wealth (in the USA - 70-75% according to various estimates ), then in the NBA, the top 10% earn only 35% of all salaries.
But even these 35% is more than one and a half billion dollars. Or, in other words, 1,655 NBA rookie minimum contracts.
Let's look at how this one and a half billion is distributed. For a round number, we will limit ourselves to the top 50 earning more than 20 million; The 51st player in the ranking with a salary of exactly 20 million is Indiana guard Malcolm Brogdon. If you go to the basketball section less than once a week, then most likely you don’t even know who it is.
And he earns more than Aguero, James, Neuer or any Serie A player except Cristiano.
Who is not in this part of the rating? For example, Philadelphia's rising star Ben Simmons, who signed a five-year, $170 million contract this summer that won't take effect until a year later, is now playing on a "modest" $8 million rookie salary.
For the same reason, Utah leader Donovan Mitchell, Dallas' delightful Luka Doncic, or intimidating rookie Zion Williamson are not yet on the NBA's Most Valuable Players list. All of them still earn a fixed salary (depending on the number under which the player was taken in the draft), for which they need to play 4 seasons before claiming a luxurious life.
Who is in this part of the rating? Giannis. The current NBA MVP - and the future, according to some forecasts, too.
Greek-Frick didn't make it into the top 40 for a number of reasons, the main one being the NBA doesn't renegotiate existing contracts (with a few exceptions so rare that they don't even deserve an asterisk and a footnote in the commentary).
Antetokounmpo signed his contract back in 2016, by that time the Greek had never played in the All-Star Game, averaging 17 points and playing as the main point guard of the very weak Bucks (49losses in a season).
And Giannis, not so long ago a beggar teenager who sold souvenirs on the streets of Athens and ran in patched sneakers, was so grateful that Milwaukee believed in him that he did not insist on a maximum contract, or even on a player option in the last year contract. He was told that he would receive $100 million, and he was stunned by this amount - and it does not matter that at the same time as him, Stephen Adams also signed for exactly the same contract, whom Oklahoma renewed only in a panic from losing Durant.
All in all, Antetokounmpo did great humanly but naively economically three years ago: Giannis has already lost $33 million by waiving his maximum wage and has also pushed back his possible free agency entry from 2020 to 2021.
That's why next year he will be so low in the rankings again.
But then - hello to the biggest contract in the history of the NBA.
There are now only 32 people in the NBA with maximum contracts of (this number does not include DeRozan, whose salary was maximum only in the first two years of the contract, Horford and Love, who played at maximum levels a year ago, Vucevic, and Millsap and Middleton from the next group).
At the same time, almost everyone has different salaries.
How did it happen?
To answer this question, needs to understand how maximum contracts are formed .
Maximum contracts come in three levels depending on the player's experience:
- up to 6 league seasons - 25% of ceiling;
- 7-9 seasons - 30%;
- and more 10 - 35%
A player can jump up one category by becoming MVP, NBA Defensive Player of the Year or making the All-Star Team of the Season. At the same time, all these 25, 30 and 35% form only the salary in the first season.
For example, now 25% of the ceiling is the salary of Russell, Porzingis, Booker, Towns. The first two signed a contract this summer, and the last two lasted a year ago, just their agreements implied entry into force in 2019-m.
And then everything changes: Russell, who signed a contract with a new team, Golden State after Brooklyn, will have an annual increase of 5%. Towns, who lasted with Minnesota, has 8%. And next year their salaries will be different.
Other players signed maximum wages in other years when there was a different salary cap. Anthony Davis received 25% of the ceiling in 2016 (he could have received 30%, but he got injured in the key season 15/16 and did not make the team of the season). Then, when he moved to the Lakers, he voluntarily forfeited a trading bonus so the Los Angelesers could sign a third star this summer.
Voiceover: They couldn't.
So it turned out that Davis and three other maximum speeds in 2016 are not in the top 30, since they are slightly behind the maximum contracts concluded later, in 2017-2019 - the growth rate of the ceiling and, consequently, the new maximum speeds were higher than the increase in their contracts .
Six people at once signed a new contract this year with a starting salary of 30% of the ceiling. And they are all different:
The strangest one is with Kyrie Irving: 1 million allocated in 8 bonuses, for which he needs to play in 70 games, hit 88.5% of free throws in a season, lose the ball no more than 2.4 times per game and so on. He did not achieve all this a year ago, and bonuses are not yet taken into account in his salary.
Tobias Harris will receive the maximum in the first year of his contract only, and will receive a total of 10 million less in the remaining seasons.
Clay Thompson signed up for 5 years.
Kemba Walker and Jimmy Butler - for 4 years, the only difference is a possible trading bonus in Kemba's contract.
Kawhi signed up for 3. And the third year is a player option, so he should be a free agent again in 2021.
Yes, it's strange to see Kawhi Leonard outside the top 10 - but he chose this path himself (as the last NBA finals showed - he did the right thing).
If the forward did not change teams, but remained in San Antonio, then this season his salary would be the same as that of Harden or Durant. But he has a different financial mechanism turned on: better conditions for winning the championship + a large market for new advertising contracts = the opportunity to get much more than the extra 5-6 million a year in the club salary.
Did you really think there was no calculator built into Kawhi's operating system?
P.S. Interestingly, in the top 20 - only Americans, this has not happened since the implementation of the salary cap in 1984! A new generation of super-foreigners, constrained by the financial rules of the NBA, has not yet reached the old American star guard.
King James always wants to be at the top of the list. But he was the most expensive NBA player only once : in the 2016/17 season. Before that, the Miami discount to team up with Wade and Bosch, the move back to Cleveland on a one-year contract, the technical impossibility of reaching Kobe's maximum salary.
And then Curry, who has been playing in one club all his career, took the lead - after all, the NBA salary rules reward those stars who do not change clubs: they get a slightly higher maximum salary, a little longer, a little earlier.
But LeBron was always pissed off about the concept of a maximum salary. Why should workers be capped by some sort of salary cap? Why can't he earn in the NBA as much as she earns on him? According to various statistical metrics, the benefit of LeBron in his peak years should have been paid by a contract of 70-80 million a year 2003, with a completely different salary cap.
Even now, LeBron James's salary would be much more than 37.4 million if there were no artificial restrictions in the NBA. Reference point? Let's take Cristiano Ronaldo. Similar age, status, achievements, popularity, the situation with the transition to another club, even advertising contracts they have about the same level of income. Ronaldo earns about 64 million a year from Juventus before taxes; LeBron, it turns out, almost half as much.
Nevertheless, LeBron will still be the first - in terms of total career earnings . In the upcoming season, he (307 million) will overtake Shaquille (286 million) and will be second only to Kobe Bryant (323 million) and Kevin Garnett (334 million), whom he will overtake in 2021. LeBron will earn almost $400 million in the NBA by the end of his career - and even more from advertising contracts. The dream of becoming a billionaire is getting closer.
Fans often demand strict logic in issuing maximum contracts. That they should only be given to MVPs or champions, that clubs shouldn't give big contracts to non-All-Star players, that only five/two/ten people/one LeBron/all 510 NBA players are eligible for the top salary.
Actually there is no logic.
The maximum contract, even the largest possible one (35% of the ceiling), can be obtained for real services to the club, like Harden - and still there will be people who consider his salary too high.![]()
You can - for previous achievements. Kevin Durant will make over $38 million in a season without a game for Brooklyn due to a torn Achilles , but the Nets believe he can return to his former superstar level and add championship experience to the team.
Or you can - for vague promises to become a top player in the NBA, as was the case with John Wall. He sparkled in the second half of the 2016/17 season and made it to the NBA's third All-Star Five, which qualified him for a Supermax contract extension. And "Washington" then gave him this 170 million extension for 4 years, which is effective now.
Since signing, Wall has never played more than 50% of his season and, like Durant, will miss the 2019 season/20 whole. But in 2017, he was a rising star, soon to be the best defenseman in the conference, and was valued for a super max contract... 90,003 90,002 Or just the Washingtons. A team that hasn't played in an Eastern final for 40 years.
Westbrook and Paul are united not only by the fact that they were traded for each other in July, but also that since 2018 they have an identical salary.
They were extended through different mechanisms, but came to the same numbers (although Westbrook has a contract for a year longer).
Why are their salaries higher than the Durant-Harden-Wall trio? Again, remember that the maximum salary depends on the ceiling, which grows unevenly . The annual salary increase is 8%, while the salary cap has increased by only 7.14% in the last year.
Contracts in the NBA, as already mentioned, are not reviewed - neither as a result of negotiations between the parties, nor by any automatic rules, so in a year Westbrook and Paul are entitled to 41 million, in two - 44 million each. And this figure will not change, even if all countries, including the United States, follow the example of China, turn their backs on the NBA, and the salary cap falls from 109million dollars to 109 million cents.
Next year, Durant, Harden, Wall, Paul and Westbrook will break the $40 million salary bar with their supermaxes. But they won't be the first.
First MVP and first title Steph Curry won fourth in terms of salary on his team, 53rd in the league behind JaVale McGee, Larry Sanders and Andrea Bargnani.
Second MVP - fifth salary with the Warriors and 61st in the NBA, behind Amir Johnson, Demarre Carroll and Brandon Knight.
Second title - Curry is the 82nd highest paid in the NBA, and it's too long to list role players earning more. At the time, Curry's salary of $12 million was closer to the minimum (1.3 million) than the maximum (26.5 million).
Just before the third title, Stef was given the contract he deserved. The largest in history at that time - 201.2 million dollars.
The third season of this contract breaks the historic mark of $40 million. However, taking into account inflation, this is not a record, but only the third most expensive indicator.
Jordan has the first two, of course. His 30 million in the 96/97 season in today's dollars would be 49 million, and 33 million in 97/98 would be 54 million.
