LeBron James keeps his crown for the 11th straight year with record earnings, leading a group of 10 stars making a combined $787 million this season.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2024/10/21/the-nbas-highest-paid-players-2024/#:~:text=LeBron%20James%20keeps%20his%20crown,combined%20%24787%20million%20this%20season.
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2024/10/21/the-nbas-highest-paid-players-2024/#:~:text=LeBron%20James%20keeps%20his%20crown,combined%20%24787%20million%20this%20season.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00For the 11th straight year, LeBron James is the NBA's highest paid player, collecting
00:06$128.7 million this season before taxes and agents' fees, the largest haul in the 15-year
00:13history of Forbes' NBA earnings ranking.
00:16$80 million of that total comes from endorsements, memorabilia, and other endeavors.
00:22No other active athlete, in any sport, tops him there.
00:26But James isn't the highest paid basketball player on the court.
00:30That would be Steph Curry, who became the first NBA player with a $50 million salary
00:35last season and is now up to $55.8 million.
00:39Expect those numbers to just keep rising.
00:42The league's collective bargaining agreement ensures that players collectively take home
00:46around 50% of basketball-related income, and the NBA's soaring revenue continues to give
00:51general managers more money to spend.
00:54The Phoenix Suns' Bradley Beal, the Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, and the Denver Nuggets'
01:00Nikola Jokic now join Curry in the $50 million salary stratosphere.
01:06And Curry is due to break the $60 million ceiling in the 2026-27 season.
01:12With the NBA's new national media rights deal set to push up the salary cap for the next
01:17several years, count on seeing more record paydays very soon.
01:22Here are the five highest paid NBA players in 2024.
01:28At number five, Damian Lillard.
01:31Damian Lillard is entering his second season with the Milwaukee Bucks, but he still maintains
01:35ties to Portland, where he spent 11 seasons with the Trailblazers.
01:39He owns a Toyota dealership just outside the city and, in January, became the first athlete
01:45with a court named after him at Adidas' North American headquarters there.
01:49He was also honored in September with the inaugural Bill Walton Community Impact Award,
01:54given by the Maurice Lucas Foundation in recognition of Lillard's philanthropic work in the area.
02:01At number four, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
02:04In January, Antetokounmpo announced that he had launched a production company called Improbable
02:09Media and its Amazon Prime video documentary, Giannis, The Marvelous Journey, was released
02:14the following month.
02:16Following its next projects are a digital diary series that the University of Alabama
02:20quarterback Jalen Milrow is publishing on its Instagram page and an Ocean's Eleven-style
02:26heist movie set in Greece, which was expected to begin production this year.
02:31Antetokounmpo, nicknamed the Greek Freak, also served as his country's flag bearer at
02:35the Paris Olympics opening ceremony in July.
02:40At number three, Kevin Durant.
02:42Durant falls just $100,000 shy of being the third NBA player this season to hit nine figures
02:48in total gross earnings.
02:50Only 17 other active athletes ever in any sport have reached the milestone in a single
02:56year.
02:57He should enter that exclusive club soon enough, however.
03:00He is due a $3.4 million raise next season, the final year of his contract with the Suns.
03:06This year, Durant unveiled an endorsement deal with Prime Sports Drinks, adding to a
03:10portfolio that includes Nike, FanDuel, and 2K.
03:14He also recently bought a stake in League One soccer team Paris Saint-Germain and his
03:19family office, 35V, invest in sports apparel brand Homage.
03:26At number two, Steph Curry.
03:29In August, Steph Curry inked a one-year extension that keeps him under contract with the Warriors
03:34through the 2026-27 season.
03:38After Klay Thompson left for the Dallas Mavericks, Curry will have to leave Golden State without
03:42his fellow splash brother for the first time since Thompson entered the NBA in 2011.
03:48Things also look very different for Curry away from basketball, in a good way.
03:53This year, he starred in and produced Peacock comedy series Mr. Throwback and invested in
03:57two beverage companies, Nirvana Water Sciences and Plezi Nutrition, the children's drink
04:03brand co-founded by Michelle Obama.
04:06Curry brand, his imprint within Under Armour, also made its first collegiate signing and
04:11first international signing after making Sacramento Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox its first
04:16signature athlete in 2023.
04:20At number one, LeBron James.
04:24After re-signing with the Lakers on a two-year $104 million deal in July, James made a bit
04:29of league history as the first father to line up alongside his son with Los Angeles rookie
04:34Bronny James earlier this season.
04:37That continues his eventful 2024.
04:40In March, James became the first NBA player with 40,000 career points, and in July, he
04:46served as Team USA's flag bearer at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
04:51Off the court, James, the first active NBA player to be named a billionaire by Forbes
04:57in 2022, added partnerships with DraftKings, Fanatics, and Hennessy, and invested in PGA
05:03Tour Enterprises, the golf tour's new commercial arm.
05:08Meanwhile, his media company Uninterrupted produced the Vice TV docuseries Uninterrupted,
05:14The Real Stories of Basketball, and the Netflix docuseries Starting Five, which features James
05:20as well as four other NBA stars, and spun off his talk show, The Shop, into its own
05:26business as it launched a men's grooming line at Walmart.
05:30James also unveiled a new podcast called Mind the Game in March.
05:34However, its ninth episode ended up being its last after James' co-host J.J. Redick
05:39was hired as the Lakers' new coach in June.