The highest-paid NBA players by season has recently eclipsed $40 million. Wilt Chamberlain has the most seasons leading the league with 8. Michael Jordan holds the largest 1-year contract in NBA history, LeBron James is the highest career earner, and Stephen Curry is the highest season earner as well as the largest multi-year contract holder in NBA history.
During the 1946âÂÂ47 season Joe Fulks was the highest paid player ($8,000) in the Basketball Association of America and Bob Davies was the highest paid player ($12,500) of the National Basketball League.
George Mikan became the first player to earn $15,000 per season in the 1948âÂÂ49 season.
Wilt Chamberlain was the first player to receive $100,000 in the 1965âÂÂ66 season. That same season, Bill Russell became just the second player to receive over $100,000.
Moses Malone & Bill Walton were the first players to earn $1 million in a season, they were paid exactly $1,000,000 in the 1979âÂÂ80 season.
Larry Bird became the first player to earn $5 million or more with a salary of $7,070,000 in the 1991âÂÂ92 season.
Magic Johnson became the first player to earn $10 million or more in the 94âÂÂ95 season with a salary of $14,660,000.
Patrick Ewing became the first player to earn $15 million or more in the 95âÂÂ96 season with a salary of $18,724,000.
Michael Jordan became the first NBA player to sign a contract worth over $20 million and $30 million in a season (1996âÂÂ97) and earned $33,140,000 in the 1997âÂÂ98 season, setting the record for the largest 1-year contract in NBA history, and held the overall record for over 20 years. Kobe Bryant became just the second player to eclipse $30 million when the 2013âÂÂ14 season began. LeBron James became the third in the 2016âÂÂ17 season.
Stephen Curry signed a record 5-year contract worth $201 million in 2017 with a starting payout of $34,682,550 in the 2017âÂÂ18 season, setting a new single-season record in earnings. He became the first player to eclipse $40 million in the 2019âÂÂ20 season. After signing a 4-year contract extension worth $215 million in 2021, Curry went on to become the first player to eclipse $50 million in the 2023âÂÂ24 season and is expected to be the first NBA player to eclipse $60 million in the 2026âÂÂ27 season, having signed a contract worth $62,587,158.
Starting from the 1984âÂÂ85 NBA season, the NBA's first salary cap was introduced. The NBA salary cap is the maximum dollar amount each NBA team can spend on its players for the season. However, the NBA uses a "soft" salary cap, which allow NBA teams to exceed their allotted amount in order to sign players through significant "salary exceptions". The salary cap is determined during the offseason, but is liable to change.
An exception is necessary to sign a player for a contract that would exceed the salary cap threshold of the "soft cap". The Larry Bird exception, more commonly known as Bird Rights, allows teams to re-sign a current player only if he has played for that particular team for a minimum of three years. Another exception, known as the mid-level exception, allows for teams that are over the salary cap to sign one or more players as long as they do not exceed the total amount of the average NBA salary. Next, the bi-annual exception can be used by teams every other year to sign a free agent(s) for up to two years at an amount set by the NBA. Finally, the rookie player exception allows any NBA team to sign their first-round draft pick to a contract based upon a scale previously set forth by the NBA. Another option for teams would be to assign players to a league-assigned minimum salary contract for a maximum of two years.