LeBron James is NBA’s highest paid for the 11th straight year
For the 11th straight year, LeBron James is the NBA’s highest-paid player, collecting $48.7 million in salary for the 2024-25 season and an estimated $80 million annually from endorsements, licensing, memorabilia and other business endeavours. His $128.7 million total (before taxes and agent fees) is the highest in the 15-year history of Forbes’ NBA ranking, topping his $124.5 million haul from 2022-23.
Time may be winding down on James’ incomparable career, but like clockwork, he keeps outplaying younger rivals on the court—and out earning them off it. When James’ run as basketball’s earnings king began, with his $64.6 million year in 2014-15, the NBA’s 10 top earners were raking in a combined $368 million, according to Forbes estimates. This year’s group more than doubles that total, at $787 million, which also beats 2022’s record of $751 million.
The new figure includes an estimated $293 million off the court, led by the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry ($50 million), the Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant ($50 million) and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo ($45 million) along with James. Only five active athletes from across the sports world—soccer’s Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, golf’s Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and baseball’s Shohei Ohtani—make at least $45 million annually off the field, according to Forbes estimates.
The real story behind NBA players’ skyrocketing paychecks, however, is on the court. The league’s collective bargaining agreement ensures that players collectively take home around 50% of basketball-related income, and the NBA’s soaring revenue—roughly $13 billion last season—continues to give general managers more money to spend. In James’ first year as the NBA’s highest-paid player, his salary was $20.6 million; this season, 82 players will exceed that figure, according to contract database Spotrac.
THE 10 HIGHEST-PAID NBA PLAYERS 2024
#1. $128.7 million
LeBron James
Age: 39 | Position: Forward | Team: Los Angeles Lakers | On-Court: $48.7 million • Off-Court: $80 million
After re-signing with the Lakers on a two-year, $104 million deal in July, James will make a bit of league history as the first father to line up alongside his son when he takes the court this week with Los Angeles rookie Bronny James. That continues his eventful 2024: In March, James became the first NBA player with 40,000 career points, and in July, he served as Team USA’s flag-bearer at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony.
Off the court, James—the first active NBA player to be named a billionaire by Forbes, in 2022—has added partnerships with DraftKings, Fanatics and Hennessy and invested in PGA Tour Enterprises, the golf tour’s new commercial arm.
Meanwhile, his media company Uninterrupted produced the Vice TV docuseries Uninterrupted: The Real Stories of Basketball and the Netflix docuseries Starting 5—which features James as well as four other NBA stars—and spun off his talk show The Shop into its own business as it launched a men’s grooming line at Walmart. James also unveiled a new podcast called Mind the Game in March; however, its ninth episode ended up being its last after James’ co-host, JJ Redick, was hired as the Lakers’ new coach in June.
#2. $105.8 million
Stephen Curry
Age: 36 | Position: Point guard | Team: Golden State Warriors | On-Court: $55.8 million • Off-Court: $50 million
In August, Curry inked a one-year extension that keeps him under contract with the Warriors through the 2026-27 season, but he’ll have to lead Golden State without his fellow Splash Brother for the first time since Klay Thompson entered the NBA in 2011. “It’s one of those hard things to kind of process just because I never imagined this would kind of be the reality,” Curry told NBA.com in July after Thompson joined the Dallas Mavericks in a sign-and-trade deal.
Things also look very different for Curry away from basketball—in a good way. This year, he starred in and produced Peacock comedy series Mr. Throwback and invested in two beverage companies, Nirvana Water Sciences and PLEZi Nutrition, the children’s drink brand cofounded by Michelle Obama.
Curry Brand, his imprint within Under Armour, made its first collegiate signing (the University of South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley) and first international signing (Japan’s Keisei Tominaga), after making Sacramento Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox its first signature athlete last October.
Curry also reportedly paid $8.5 million for a commercial building in San Francisco to serve as the headquarters of Thirty Ink, which houses all of his business endeavors. And Underrated, the golf tour he started with an eye on improving the sport’s diversity, expanded to Europe.
#3. $99.9 million
Kevin Durant
Age: 36 | Position: Forward | Team: Phoenix Suns | On-Court: $49.9 million • Off-Court: $50 million
Durant falls just $100,000 shy of being the third NBA player this season to hit nine figures in total gross earnings; only 17 other active athletes ever, in any sport, have reached the milestone in a single year. He should enter that exclusive club soon enough, however: He is due a $3.4 million raise next season, the final year of his contract with the Suns. On the Olympic court, Durant is in even more rarefied air.
This summer, he became the first men’s basketball player to win a fourth gold medal and broke Team USA’s career scoring record, with 518 points at the Summer Games. Just before heading off to Paris, Durant unveiled an endorsement deal with Prime sports drinks, adding to a portfolio that includes Nike, FanDuel and 2K. He also recently bought a stake in Ligue 1 soccer team Paris Saint-Germain while his family office, 35V, invested in sports apparel brand Homage.
#4. $93.8 million
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Age: 29 | Position: Forward | Team: Milwaukee Bucks | On-Court: $48.8 million • Off-Court: $45 million
In January, Antetokounmpo announced that he had launched a production company called Improbable Media, and its Amazon Prime Video documentary Giannis: The Marvelous Journey was released the following month.
Among its next projects are a digital diary series that University of Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe is publishing on his Instagram page and an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist movie set in Greece, which was expected to begin production this year. Antetokounmpo, nicknamed the Greek Freak, also served as his country’s flag-bearer at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony in July.
#5. $64.8 million
Damian Lillard
Age: 34 | Position: Point guard | Team: Milwaukee Bucks | On-Court: $48.8 million • Off-Court: $16 million
After the Bucks were bounced from the playoffs in the first round in May—a disappointing end to Lillard’s first season in Milwaukee—the eight-time All-Star went to work, training with a prominent ultramarathoner. Lillard, however, still maintains ties to Portland, where he spent 11 seasons with the Trail Blazers.
He owns a Toyota dealership just outside the city and in January became the first athlete with a court named after him at Adidas’ North American headquarters there. He was also honored in September with the inaugural Bill Walton Community Impact Award, given by the Maurice Lucas Foundation in recognition of Lillard’s philanthropic work in the area.
#6. $61.4 million
Joel Embiid
Age: 30 | Position: Center | Team: Philadelphia 76ers | On-Court: $51.4 million • Off-Court: $10 million
Embiid agreed to a three-year, $192.9 million extension in September, keeping him under contract in Philadelphia through the 2028-29 season, and he seems committed to getting the 76ers their money’s worth after injuries and fatigue have limited his effectiveness in the postseason in recent years.
The Cameroonian superstar recently told reporters that he had lost “25, 30 pounds” this off-season and that he would be more willing to listen to the Philadelphia training staff about easing up in the regular season to stay fresh for the playoffs.
“They know that if they have to punch me, slap me, take my stuff away from me not to get on that court, they’re going to have to do it,” Embiid said with a smile, as reported by ESPN. “I might get mad, I might curse people out, but I think it’s a relationship.” Embiid also bolstered his off-court business with a new sneaker deal with Skechers.
#7. $58.8 million
Jimmy Butler
Age: 35 | Position: Small forward | Team: Miami Heat | On-Court: $48.8 million • Off-Court: $10 million
Butler founded coffee brand BigFace in 2021, the year after he served as a makeshift barista selling $20 cups of coffee to fellow NBA players in the league’s bubble during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company is now opening its first permanent shop in Miami, but after five years with the Heat, Butler’s future in the city is a little more uncertain: He has a player option for next season and could elect to enter free agency in 2025 instead.
#8. $58.2 million
Devin Booker
Age: 27 | Position: Guard | Team: Phoenix Suns | On-Court: $49.2 million • Off-Court: $9 million
Booker, who turns 28 this month, has his first signature shoe from Nike, with the sneaker receiving plaudits even before its official debut last season. He paid it forward by gifting a special edition of the shoe to each member of the Michigan State basketball team and coaching staff when the Suns were in town this month for a preseason game against the Detroit Pistons. (While Booker attended the University of Kentucky, he grew up in Michigan and has maintained a relationship with Spartans coach Tom Izzo.)
#9. $58 million
Luka Doncic
Age: 25 | Position: Guard | Team: Dallas Mavericks | On-Court: $43 million • Off-Court: $15 million
Coming off an appearance in the NBA finals, Doncic is the basketball earnings ranking’s youngest player and was one of only five athletes age 25 and under to appear on Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid athletes in May. That is due in part to a growing stable of sponsors that added Gatorade in April, alongside partners such as Jordan Brand, Nerf and the Slovenian Tourist Board.
#10. $57.7 million
Bradley Beal
Age: 31 | Position: Guard | Team: Phoenix Suns | On-Court: $50.2 million • Off-Court: $7.5 million
Along with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, Beal gives the Suns three players in the NBA earnings top 10; the Milwaukee Bucks, with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, are the only other team with even two. As Beal enters his second season in Phoenix, he recently told reporters that new Suns coach Mike Budenholzer is encouraging him to play more aggressively. It was only the preseason, but the early results have been good, with Beal looking more like the player who made three All-Star teams with the Washington Wizards than the version that was hampered by injuries last season.
Source: Forbes
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