Listing the 9 NBA players who are currently on supermax contracts
The NBA is showering players with money more than ever before. It is the biggest sport in the US in terms of worldwide following and naturally, has some of the highest paid players in the world.
The league's licensing and broadcast deals go into the tens of billions as the viewership is growing year by year. 35 of the 100 highest-paid athletes in the world, across all sports, are NBA players.
The likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant have featured in the top 10 for years. The highest-paid athlete in the world for all-time earnings is Michael Jordan who has made over $1.8 billion in salaries and endorsements.
NBA's supermax contract and the players on it
The largest salaried contract in the NBA is the 'supermax' deal, officially known as the "Designated Veteran Player Exception", which allows teams that drafted a player (or traded for his rookie deal) to re-sign him for a whopping 35% of the team's salary cap, with an 8% escalation in each subsequent year.
In order to qualify for this deal, a player must fulfill the following criteria:
1) He must be entering his eighth season (or higher) in the NBA.
2) He should have made the All-NBA team (any of the three) in either the season immediately before signing the extension, or two of the three previous seasons.
3) He should have been the NBA MVP at least once in the previous three seasons or the NBA DPOY in either the season immediately before signing the extension, or two of the three previous seasons.
Only a handful of players have qualified for this "supermax" deal as achieving these accolades isn't easy. So let's take a look at this exclusive club of the league's best players who bag the highest salaries in the NBA.
#1 Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry took the Golden State Warriors franchise to where it is today. They made the NBA Finals for five straight years, something that hadn't been done since Bill Russell's Boston Celtics in the 1960s. He won back-to-back MVP awards, with the second one being the only unanimous MVP in NBA history.
One could go on and on about his accolades and otherworldly achievements but it is no surprise that the Warriors are paying him a fortune, considering he is the best player in franchise history.
Naturally, he signed a supermax deal worth $201 million in 2017 and then signed another one in 2021 worth $215 million, making him the only player in NBA history to sign multiple $200M+ deals.
And he would still be underpaid twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/s…
Stephen Curry would be earning close to $60 million in the final year of his deal in 2025-26. He is currently the highest-paid player in the league.
#2 Damian Lillard
One of the best players to don the Portland Trail Blazers jersey, Damian Lillard had the largest guaranteed contract in the NBA until last season with $257 million guaranteed through the 2024-25 NBA season. He has since been overshadowed by Curry's massive deal and the salary cap projection has gone down.
Noted in here that the $196M super max extension that Damian Lillard signed in Portland last July will likely be reduced to $176M.
The original number was based on a $125M salary cap.
The cap in 2021-22 projects to be at $112M. twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/s…
Damian Lillard is the 5th-highest salaried player in the NBA and will earn over $50 million in the 2023-24 NBA season. He has broken several Trail Blazers records and is arguably one of the best shooters this game has ever seen.
There is no doubt that his no. 0 jersey will hang in the Moda Center rafters one day and he is certainly a lock-in for the Basketball Hall of Fame at this point.
#3 Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the best players to don a Milwaukee Bucks jersey. He is already more accomplished than all the players his age combined.
At age 26, he is a two-time MVP, Finals MVP, MIP award winner, DPOY, five-time All-NBA, and an All-Star game MVP, amongst other things. He led the Bucks to their first NBA title in 50 years.
On Dec. 15, 2020, Giannis Antetokounmpo signed the supermax, committing to:
◻️ The team that drafted him
◻️ His teammates, old and new
◻️ The city of Milwaukee
◻️ Winning a championship
On July 20, 2021, he delivered.
✍️ @eric_nehm
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Giannis Antetokounmpo signed the biggest deal in NBA history at $228 million and will earn an average salary of $45.6 million over the next five years. His payroll for the 2025-26 NBA season is $52 million.