Top candidates to reach $1 million per game
Based on those charts, the best bets to reach $1 million per game first are players who will sign supermax deals after Gilgeous-Alexander, who was drafted in 2018.
Among the 2019 draft class, Ja Morant is the only player to make an All-NBA team, and that was three years ago. It seems unlikely anyone in this draft class will qualify for the supermax.
However, the 2020 draft class offers two top candidates for supermax qualification: Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton. It's unknown for Haliburton since he'll miss all of next season due to an untimely Achilles tear. But Edwards has made two All-NBA second teams in a row, putting him on track to sign a supermax in the summer of 2027, which could be worth up to four years and $345 million and rise above $82 million in the second season.
If not Edwards, two members of the 2021 draft class made their first All-NBA teams last season: Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley. Other promising members of that draft class include Scottie Barnes, Alperen Sengun and Franz Wagner.
Granting even modest annual cap increases between now and the 2030s, it's highly likely that whomever of Cunningham, Mobley and their contemporaries qualifies for the supermax will make more than $1 million per game at some point.
And as the cap keeps climbing, more and more young players will be able to earn unprecedented sums on the basketball court. Recent draftees, like the class of 2022's Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero, and the class of 2023's Victor Wembanyama and Amen Thompson, could realistically sign contracts worth more than $100 million per year.
Experienced veterans signing shorter extensions could also cash in for nine figures annually — including Gilgeous-Alexander, when he signs his next lucrative extension after his supermax is up in 2031. Just this week, the Phoenix Suns' Devin Booker agreed to a new two-year extension worth up to $145 million, which carries a higher annual value than SGA's recently signed supermax (though because his deal is shorter, it won't reach as high by the end as SGA's).
Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45711806/nba-free-agency-2025-the-first-82m-player
39 comments
100 mil a year contracts will be crazy. The salary cap keeps rising so drastically.
Does Evan Mobley deserve a supermax?
Please don’t downvote me this is a new account and I need karma to post in other places lol
That’s it. It’s time for my NBA comeback! Am I 32 with a bad a knee and back? Sure. But there is too much money out there for me not to try. See you in June 2026, NBA.
There’s no way the league will continue to grow that much. There is potential lockout coming up if players think they are deserving of these contracts
What a joke as we pay surgeons and teachers 60,000 to 80,000 dollars I love the NBA but my god these salaries are disgusting
Doesn’t [Embiid](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/e/embiijo01.html) already consistently make way more than $1M per game?
2025:
– 19 games played
– Salary = $51,415,938
– Per game = $51,415,938 ÷ 19 ≈ $2.7M
we gotta start putting % of the cap with contracts cause mozgov money aint the same anymore. these numbers are ridiculous
This stuff is 100% a bubble and it’s going to pop. Salaries are getting too absurd for it to continue like this.
When I was talking about LeBron’s 2/104m contract with a friend last year, I sent him the following message:
>By the time Wemby signs his first non-rookie contract in 3/4 years, he’ll be making $100m a year
It’s insane how much the league has grown over the last few years
Where the fuck is the money coming from? People are broke. Its disgusting greed.
Seems like there’s room for some serious expansion. Lot of money to go around.
While the top dollar for top talents will no doubt increase, I genuinely believe the above average talents will no longer get max contracts. Otto Porter, MPJ great players in their own right but was never worth the max.
I read your post and I have a different opinion if your numbers are correct. I think it’s highly likely that Anthony Edwards, not Cade, will be the first to get 82m per year.
And fans will have to take out a mortgage to take their kid to a game.
Talking about Amen Thompson as a max guy already is similar to how Charlotte gave MKG a $52m extension. I’m not convinced Amen isn’t just Andre Roberson with a publicist yet. Amen absolutely chucked Houston out of many a game after he got the push from social media last season.
I don’t know how they’re doing this with the new CBA
slash that max percentage by up to 5%
more money to middle class player!!
spread the wealth!!
Wemby hasn’t played 2 full seasons but will be the highest paid player in the league. Crazy
Will happen as long as the viewers keep paying for cable and individual streaming apps at inflated prices every year.
It’s silly for fans to be excited about increased tv rights for their favorite sport/conference, because at the end of the day the fans are the ones funding it.
Compound interest be crazy.
But does the TV deal money go up each year like this?
I wish they’d start reporting contracts as percentages of the cap instead of the actual numbers. 35% of the cap for a star sounds a hell of a lot better than 100M per year
This doesn’t matter. Players are entitled to 51% of Basketball related income…
Amen Thompson potentially making 100 mill a year is ridiculous as anything. Guys like SGA, Wemby sure but Amen stop
Where is all this money coming from? Who is spending money on NBA?
I’m all for players getting their bag but man that’s a lot of money. A lot of it should really be getting distributed to the city instead for development. Imagine this going towards low income housing specifically. Not mad tho. Good for players getting the bag. Just crazy it’s gotten this high. There’s better use for it
If the work you put in contributes to the increased profitability of the business that employs you, it only makes sense that your compensation should increase accordingly, right?
This will eventually alienate a majority of the general fanbase if the economy stays the way it is or gets worse imo. Idk how average people will afford to attend games, buy merch, or even get to the point of streaming being too expensive. Meanwhile, some of these players will make more in a year than a family of 4+ generations combined. Add into the mix that a lot of players are being viewed as soft, don’t love the game, sit out half the games, rest too often, etc. This could easily become the league known for just primarily overpaid grown up children and eventually there’s gotta be a disconnect. If its not already.
Just for dribbling that stupid orange round ball
Where do they keep getting this money from? Mostly TV deals right? Feels like none of my friends pay money for cable and all I ever hear is that ratings are always terrible compared to the past so it seems like a disconnect.
Light work. Embiid made $2.7m per game played last season
Amen is great right… but i cant imagine him making 100M’s when the other guy getting that salary is Wemby
We chose the wrong career
1 million a game is fucking absurd. I am sure some arenas aren’t even making 1 million dollars from ticket sales per game (like the Wizards and Hornet)
*whoever
Wemby is gonna get the superdupermegamax
Beal has making $1M per game played for a couple of years already
What is the inflection point where the salary becomes so obscene that the average fan loses interest
By the 2030s there will be a bunch of NBA players making over $100 million per year.
I don’t begrudge any of these guys the money they help the enterprise they work for bring in. That said, I never see anyone talking about the fact that that much money tends to change one’s incentives as money has a greatly diminished utility at that point.
Additionally, we will start to see many players who are both making more money than the team governors on a year to year basis, but also could have a higher net worth in some cases. LeBron is richer than many owners already.
The downside for fans is that, with a guaranteed contract, there is little incentive of many max players to play (or play hard or play hurt) on a day to day basis. Joel Embiid gets paid the same amount whether he plays 50 games or 82 games. Do we think a Bradley Beal without a guaranteed contract would be honing his craft more or less?
Regardless, the league needs to figure how to more properly incentivize quasi-billionaires if they want to maintain the health of the league. A guy who might make $5mm over the course of his career is motivated in a different way than a guy who might make $500mm.