Top Earners – Who are the Richest NBA Players?

The NBA is one of the richest sports leagues in the world. During the 2023/24 season alone, the 30 competing franchises generated total revenue of $11.34 billion. This was an increase of more than $700 million when compared with the previous campaign, as basketball’s premier pro league becomes increasingly popular and affluent.

Money flows in and out of the NBA, of course, including the amount wagered on the sport at the leading online sportsbooks in the US. Significant sums are also invested in player salaries each year, including performance-related bonuses. But who are the richest NBA players and precisely how much do they earn?

• Top NBA Salaries Through History
• Who Are the NBA Top Paid Players Today?
• Stephen Curry – NBA’s Biggest Earner for 8 Successive Seasons
• Joel Embiid – A Record-Breaking Center & Olympic Gold Medalist
• Nikola Jokić – Europe’s Man Mountain & Third-Highest Earner in the NBA
• Jason Tatum – The Young Gun & Six-Time NBA All-Star
• Jimmy Butler – Small Forward With a Big Personality & Even Larger Salary

Top NBA Salaries Through History

Throughout history, the NBA top paid players have earned incrementally higher amounts. In the inaugural 1946/47 NBA campaign, “Jumping Joe” Fulks was the league’s highest earner, as he banked an annual salary of $8,000. This was a seismic amount at the time, with Fulks considered by many to be the sport’s trailblazing superstar and the first of the high-scoring forwards in basketball.

Bill Russell was the first NBA player to earn a six-figure salary, as he was paid $100,001 by the Boston Celtics ahead of the 1965/66 season. Also considered to be among the greatest basketball players of all-time, Russell won an incredible 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career, while he was also the league’s MVP on five separate occasions.

The league’s rising popularity and sustained expansion saw the NBA become increasingly wealthy over time, which enabled 11 players to clear $1 million or more in earnings between 1979 and 1982. This number includes the legendary center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 1,560 games in the NBA and scored a staggering 38,387 points. To this day, he remains the league’s second-highest scorer behind LeBron James (more on him a little later).

Interestingly, James has only once held the accolade of being the NBA’s highest earner (he banked a $30,963,450 salary for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016/17). In the eight years since, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors has been the league’s highest paid player, with his current salary estimated to be around $59,606,817.

Who Are the NBA Top Paid Players Today?

Curry certainly leads the NBA top salaries in 2025, earning more than $4 million more than his nearest rival. His annual salary of $59,606,817 is also more than $7 million higher than the aforementioned LeBron James, who despite being among the richest NBA players for much of his career is now 14th on this particular list. So, let’s take a closer look at Curry’s earnings and some of the other NBA top paid players.

Stephen Curry – NBA’s Biggest Earner for 8 Successive Seasons

Curry isn’t just among the richest NBA players of all-time, but he has also led the way in terms of earnings for eight consecutive seasons. The prolific point guard has played for the Golden State Warriors since 2009, during which time he has played 1,002 matches in the NBA and scored an impressive 24,746 points.

Curry’s high earnings can be attributed to both his incredible longevity and consistent performances over time. After all, he averages 24.7 PPG across his entire NBA career, while this number increases to 27.00 during playoff matches. He notched a PPG average of 30.5 in 2023, further highlighting his ability to perform on the biggest stage.

Perhaps Curry’s standout year came in the 2020/21 NBA campaign. He averaged an exceptional 32.0 PPG across 64 regular season games, before making the NBA All-Star team at the end of the season. Interestingly, Curry has earned this accolade on 11 separate occasions, while his career achievements also include four NBA championships and two MVP awards.

Curry currently ranks as the 27th highest NBA points scorer of all-time. He also holds the NBA record for throwing the most three-point field goals in the league, amassing 3,948 since the beginning of his stellar career. He holds the three-point field goals record for a single season too, throwing 402 in the 2015/16 campaign.

Even aged 36, Curry shows no signs of seriously going down, although his PPG number dipped slightly below his career average in the 2023/24 campaign (26.4). He also remains one of the league’s biggest clutch players, so there’s no doubt that he offers significant value as one of the top NBA earners.

Joel Embiid – A Record-Breaking Center & Olympic Gold Medalist

Man mountain Joel Embiid is next on our list of highest paid NBA players. Measuring seven-feet tall and weighing in at an imposing 280 lbs (127 kg), the Philadelphia 76ers center is a seven-time NBA All Star who currently earns a cool $55,224,526 per annum. Embiid has played for the 76ers since 2014, with his salary continuing to increase markedly year-on-year.

Embiid also appears to be at the peak of his powers in 2025. To this end, he was voted the NBA’s MVP in 2023, having started 66 regular season matches and scored an impressive 33.1 PPG. This followed a stellar performance during the previous campaign, when scored 30.6 PPG on average and became the first center since Moses Malone in 1982 to score at such a rate.

The 2023/24 regular season saw him break new ground, as Embiid produced a PPG average of 34.7. This is significantly higher than his still notable career average of 27.9 PPG, while at 30 years old he still has plenty of time to evolve and develop his game. It’s worth noting that he has still started just 433 matches in the NBA.

Embiid is undoubtedly a well-rounded clutch player, with excellent defensive and offensive skills. To this end, he’s a three-time member of the NBA All-Defensive Team, while he also earned recognition as a two-time scoring champion in the league. What’s more, Embiid won a gold medal on the US Olympic team in Paris 2024.

Nikola Jokić – Europe’s Man Mountain & Third-Highest Earner in the NBA

Nikola Jokić is another larger-than-life character and NBA star, measuring 6 ft 11 in and weighing 284 lbs (129 kg). Intriguingly, he also boasts the same exact annual salary as Joel Embiid according to Spotrac, earning a cool $55,224,526 per annum. His wage is projected to rise as high as $62,841,702 by 2027/28, which could make the Serbian the highest paid player in the NBA.

Starring for the Denver Nuggets since 2015, 30-year-old Jokić has performed consistently well during the previous four seasons. In fact, he has averaged well over 20.0 PPG in each of these campaigns, having only done so once during his first five campaigns in the NBA. So, although his career PPG average is just 20.9, he scored 26.4 PPG in 2023/24 and 27.1 points-per-game during the 2021/22 season.

Jokić also won the 2023 NBA Championships with the Nuggets, starting 69 regular season games and averaging 24.5 PPG. In that year’s playoffs, he started 20 matches and scored at an impressive 30.0 PPG, with this also ensuring that the Serbian was voted as the NBA Finals MVP. He has been the overall NBA MVP in the three of the last four years, in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

Interestingly, Jokić boasts an outstanding record in the playoffs, where his average PPG tally is significantly higher than his overall record. He also notched 31.0 PPG in the 2022 playoffs (albeit across just five matches), while he scored 28.7 points-per-game in the 2024 postseason as he continued to deliver as a reliable big-game player.

Jason Tatum – The Young Gun & Six-Time NBA All-Star

Jayson Tatum is the youngest player to feature so far on this list, with the Boston Celtics star and 2024 NBA champion aged just 26 years old. Despite this, he earns approximately $54,126,450 per annum with the Celtics, while his projected salary cap for 2028/29 is as high as $67,116,798.

This would be one of the NBA top salaries, and there’s little doubt that Tatum’s career performances and prolific point scoring have earned such a high level of remuneration. This particular power forward has a career PPG average of 23.1, although he scored at a rate of 26.9 points-per-game as the Celtics won the NBA Championship last year.

In the previous season, Tatum produced an impressive average PPG tally of 30.1. Since the 2020/21 campaign, Tatum has maintained a PPG average above 26.4, while he’s also a consistent performer in the playoffs. Since 2018, he has averaged 24.0 PPG exactly in 113 postseason matches, scoring 25.0 points-per-game in Boston’s postseason championship run in 2024.

Tatum also has the most playoff points scored by a player before turning 27, while he’s tied with LeBron James for the most 30-point, 10-rebound and 5-assist games in a single playoff run (seven games in 2023). So, although Tatum has never been named the NBA’s MVP (there’s plenty of time for his to achieve this particular accolade), he’s a six-time All-Star and one of the most reliable big-game players in the league.

Jimmy Butler – Small Forward With a Big Personality & Even Larger Salary

Last, but not least, we come to 35-year-old veteran and small forward Jimmy Butler. After his recent move to the Golden State Warriors (which followed an acrimonious split from Miami Heat and a series of suspensions for misconduct), he has now represented five different franchises and currently earns an estimated $54,126,450 per annum.

Butler has always been a consistent performer, both offensively and defensively. To this end, he has a career PPG average of 18.3 across 839 games, while nine of the 15 seasons he has played in the NBA have seen him average more than 20.0 points-per-game. Butler is also a five-time NBA All-Defensive Team member who completed the most steals in 2021.

His form remained strong for much of 2024, despite his ongoing conflict with Miami Heat. In fact, he notched an incredible 33 points, nine rebounds and six assists in a 123-118 overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks last November. He then contributed 35 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists and four steals in a 125-124 loss to the Detroit Pistons, making him just the third player in NBA history to hit these numbers in a single match (after DeMarcus Cousins in 2018 and George McGinnis in 1976).

Butler is also an Olympic gold medalist, having been part of the winning US team in Brazil 2016. So, although he has never won an NBA Championship or been named the league’s most valuable player, he has achieved a consistently high level and boasts one of the most prestigious awards in international basketball!