Every time NBA money is discussed, a certain point is raised. The legendary former Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade once referred to LeBron James as the league’s stingiest player. James did not dispute it. Despite earning more than $130 million annually, the man continues to use Spotify’s free version. He travels to arenas with his own snacks. refuses to activate data roaming. Even though elite athletes have more money than most people can realistically imagine, this strange detail reveals something about how differently they view money.
One of the most lucrative leagues in professional sports today is the NBA. Currently, the average annual salary is approximately $10 million. The combined salary of the top ten players this season is predicted to be close to $902 million. The question of who exactly is in charge of all of this is naturally raised by those figures, which even twenty years ago would have seemed unreal.
Stephen Curry is the answer for the 2025–2026 campaign. When you add his playing salary, endorsement deals, and business revenue, the Golden State Warriors point guard is expected to make about $159.6 million. In NBA history, that number is unprecedented. LeBron James had been at the top for the previous eleven years in a row, starting in 2014. At last, Curry knocked him out. James remains in second place with a season total of about $137 million. The very top of this earning bracket has become so tightly packed that there is hardly any difference between first and second.
Curry’s ascent is intriguing for reasons other than just the money. It’s the chronology. Despite winning back-to-back MVP awards and four titles with Golden State, he remained one of the world’s top players for years without taking home the earnings crown. The basketball legacy gradually caught up to the endorsement machine, and now both are operating at full speed at the same time. He is somehow starting his 17th season as the league’s highest earner for the first time at the age of 37.
There is another type of expense, which is entirely related to career-long trade value and has nothing to do with a single salary. After being traded in the Jaylen Brown deal, Paul George, now 36 and wearing Boston Celtics green, has quietly amassed the highest trade total in NBA history.
He has been traded for five players, seven first-round picks, and four pick swaps during his career. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who went on to win two MVP awards, was one of those players sent out to acquire him. Regardless of whether the teams acquiring him consistently received what they paid for, the math suggests that George is perhaps the most valuable trade asset the league has ever moved.
Paul George’s predicament may reveal more about how teams value perceived star power than it does about his true influence on winning. Teams continued to place large futures bets on him. A few of those wagers were successful. Clearly, others didn’t. However, the amount of money spent on a single player over several stops is truly unprecedented in the current NBA.
The financial tales become more bizarre and amusing off the court. A salesman once joked that 7’1″ Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t fit in a Ferrari, so he had one made specifically for him. He purchased two and combined them into one longer car. He later did the same with a Lamborghini, which cost him $600,000. Dwight Howard built a $100,000 mansion especially for his forty pet snakes, complete with two full-time caregivers and ambient lighting. Dwyane Wade made a pair of $4 million custom sneakers adorned with diamonds, sapphires, and 18-karat gold.
Observing all of this gives me the impression that NBA money has moved into a completely different category, where the figures are now practically abstract. A player who makes $55 million a season is regarded as being in the middle of the elite. In the early days of the league, George Mikan made $15,000 a season, and in 1965, Wilt Chamberlain became the first player to reach $100,000. The ascent from that point to the current state of affairs is nearly impossible to envision.
