According to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, LeBron James and Stephen Curry will make more than $225 million combined in the 2023-24 season.
James is expected to earn $128 million, making him the league’s highest-paid player. According to Badenhausen, that’s thanks to his $47.6 million salary and an estimated $80 million in endorsements.
Curry is expected to earn $101.9 million from $50 million in endorsements.
Curry and James join Giannis Antetokounmpo ($90.6 million), Kevin Durant ($88.4 million) and Klay Thompson ($64.2 million) as the league’s five highest-paid players. Followed by Damian Lillard ($62.6 million), Joel Embiid ($56.6 million) ) and James Harden ($55.6 million).
Nikola Jokic ($54.6 million) and Paul George ($54.1 million) round out the top 10.
According to Badenhausen, the NBA’s 15 highest-paid players will earn a combined $1 billion in the 2023-24 season.
Curry, Antetokounmpo and Durant will each earn about half of their revenue through endorsement deals, according to Sportico.
According to Sportskeeda, Curry’s endorsements include his signature brand with Under Armor and collaborations with brands such as Chase, Nissan, Sony, JP Morgan and Rakuten.
Antetokounmpo reportedly has endorsement deals with Nike, WhatsApp, JBL, Google and T-Mobile milwaukee sentinelJ.R. Radcliffe and Durant are the third athlete in NBA history to sign a lifetime endorsement deal with Nike.
Badenhausen noted that endorsements aren’t the only source of additional income for the NBA’s top owners. James, Curry and Durant are also owners of companies whose investments range from media platforms to alcohol brands to team ownership in other leagues.
Even without endorsement deals, salaries at the NBA’s top teams have soared, dwarfing other major North American leagues. The most expensive people in North America are Lillard, Anthony Davis, Jaylen Brown, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker and Jokic. Each of them has an average annual salary of more than $55 million.
That’s a higher salary AAV than any other professional athlete on the continent, with Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow and Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi leading non-NBA players at around $55 million.
These wages will continue to rise in the future. The NBA expects to raise its salary cap by up to 10% next year after raising it to about $165 million for the 2023-24 season.