Apropos of the Kawhi Leonard allegations, today we’re going to look at players throughout NBA history who have famously taken pay cuts, with some being far more financially costly than others.

To be clear, we’re not trying to convict anyone of any wrongdoing here, be it in Leonard’s case or anyone else’s on this list, but if you’re the conspiratorial type, you might find this article interesting, as some of these voluntary pay cuts are almost hard to believe.

Dirk Nowitzki

In the summer of 2014, Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki opted to sign a three-year, $25 million contract to remain in Dallas, pretty much ensuring he’d be spending his entire career with the Mavericks. Nowitzki was no slouch at that point, having earned All-Star honors the season prior, while getting MVP votes after putting up nearly 22 points and over six rebounds per game. 

Nowitzki’s loyalty helped Dallas create cap room, though the Mavericks didn’t exactly take advantage, as they used said cap room to sign Chandler Parsons to a three-year, $46-plus million deal. (In fairness, Parsons did spend two relatively healthy seasons in Dallas, suiting up in 66 games and 61 games, respectively, averaging 14.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in that span, before he opted out of the final year of the deal to join the Memphis Grizzlies in 2016.)

Nowitzki received huge interest as a free agent in 2014, turning down reported max-level offers from the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets to re-sign with Dallas on a huge discount.

Dirk Nowitzki has taken an even bigger pay cut than expected to help Mark Cuban fortify the Dallas Mavericks’ roster, according to sources with knowledge of the star forward’s contract. Sources told ESPN.com that Nowitzki’s new contract, which was officially announced Tuesday, is actually a three-year deal worth a mere $25 million. …. Nowitzki also took less money than he could have in his previous contract, signing a four-year deal worth $80 million when he was eligible to receive $96 million. The Mavericks won the first championship in franchise history in the first year of that contract. “[Cuban] knows I don’t want to go anywhere and he doesn’t want me to go anywhere,” Nowitzki recently told ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM. “We’re guessing that will be over pretty quick and then we can focus on making this franchise even better. “This deal is not going to be about squeezing out the last dollar. We’ll just have to wait and see what the years and the final number is, but I’m sure it will be respectable for both sides.”

Those contracts would have been worth around $96 million total, $70 million-plus more than what the Hall-of-Fame big man wound up receiving in Dallas.

LeBron James

When LeBron James made the shocking decision to head south and join the Miami Heat in 2010, he was so committed to the new project that he left $15 million on the table over the life of the deal to help form the Big 3 – and its supporting cast.

Miami used the mid-level exception to sign Mike Miller to a five-year, $29 million deal, but needed cap room to re-sign team staple Udonis Haslem, which the big man discussed in 2023 on his podcast:

“But the fact that Bron, CB, and D-Wade all collabed to take less money to make that $20 [million] available for me, it said enough, because they didn’t have to do that,” Haslem explained. “Dwyane understood. Bron and CB don’t know me from a can of paint. They ain’t ever played with me, they don’t know nothing about me,” he continued. “But the fact that they was able to say, ‘Okay, cool. We need him. We need him to win.’ That let me know I got to get them boys they money worth.”

Haslem himself took a pay cut that summer to re-sign in Miami, turning down more lucrative offers from the Rockets and Denver Nuggets, who offered him $34 million, to instead stay with his hometown Heat. More on that later, though. 

Regardless, the fact that Miami was able to not only sign an in-prime James away from Cleveland but also get him to take a pay cut is a testament to the recruiting job Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade did over the years. And it paid off pretty well, too, with the team winning two of the NBA’s next four championships before James went back to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It wasn’t the biggest pay cut on this list, but James’ was undoubtedly one of the most impactful.

Kevin Durant

In the summer of 2017, former league MVP Kevin Durant made the decision to re-sign with the Golden State Warriors on a two-year deal with a player option on Year 2. The entire contract was worth $53 million, but since Durant opted out the following summer, that means Durant played on what amounted to a one-year deal worth… $25.9 million, roughly $9 million less than the max at the time.

For comparison’s sake, in 2025-26, veteran forward John Collins will make $26.6 million and be the the NBA’s 68th highest-paid player. That’s more than Durant made in 2017-18, when he’d go on to put up 26/7/5 on nearly 42 percent shooting from three, and lead the Warriors to a second straight championship. 

Talk about a meaningful pay cut. Durant decided to take the pay cut to help Golden State keep its championship core intact, as his reduced salary meant the Warriors were able to retain the Bird Rights to two key pieces: Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. According to then-ESPN scribe Chris Haynes, if Iguodala had left the Warriors in free agency, Durant would have taken an even bigger pay cut to help get talent on what was an already-loaded Warriors squad:

There’s no doubt that when Durant joined Golden State, he was as committed as possible to win some serious hardware, which, to his credit, he did accomplish.

Dwyane Wade

Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade showed tremendous loyalty to the franchise multiple times, giving up $16 million on his first contract, the highest amount out of anyone in Miami’s Big 3, to help the team facilitate signing the other two superstars, as well as the re-signing of franchise mainstay Udonis Haslem.

Wade then helped Miami out even more by, in 2014, opting out of the final years of his deal to save the Heat more money, re-signing on just a two-year, $31.1 million contract, $7 million less than what his 2010 contract would have paid him, an obscene underpay considering Wade was still an All-Star-level player at that point.

Of course, as history tells it, Wade’s loyalty was not exactly rewarded, as in the summer of 2016 when the Hall of Famer was a free agent once more, Riley called re-signing Hassan Whiteside the team’s No. 1 priority, saying the big man was a game-changer, according to ESPN. 

Wade wound up leaving that summer, opting instead to sign with his hometown Chicago Bulls on a two-year, $47 million contract, a perfectly understandable decision considering how his two big pay cuts with Miami weren’t rewarded in the summer of 2016.

Chris Bosh

Like Wade and James, Chris Bosh also took a pay cut – in his case, one that saw him leave $15 million on the table vs. the max – to sign in Miami in 2010. Bosh did it, obviously, in the pursuit of championship glory in South Beach alongside the superstar guard and GOAT candidate swingman, but apparently, the Heat weren’t the only contenders for Bosh’s signature in 2010.

According to Wade, he and James almost signed with Chicago in 2010, but both wanted to play with Bosh. So because the Bulls only had the cap space for two max-level players, the trio wound up choosing the Heat in order to chase rings together:

“Chris Bosh effect,” Wade said, explaining why he and LeBron James didn’t sign with the Bulls in 2010. “Had the opportunity for us three to play together and we both separately really wanted to play with Chris Bosh. So it was going to be kind of a sense where Chicago wanted two players, they could have got two players. It probably was going to be LeBron and Chris or me and Chris, right? It kind of was moreso that effect, that they could only do two. And Miami was able to get all three of us. And we really wanted to play together at that moment once we found out it could be a thing. So instead of it being me, LeBron and Derrick Rose, it’s going to be a tough one. So we decided to pick what we thought was better from a basketball standpoint.”

The fact that Derrick Rose had so much potential in 2010, even winning league MVP a year later, is what cost the Bulls their shot at signing two all-timers in their prime, Wade and James.

Regardless, Bosh’s pay cut was rewarded as not only did he win two championships in Miami, but the Heat also gave him a second huge contract in 2014, worth five years and $118 million, so, at least in his case, his loyalty was rewarded by the Heat, which was not the case with Wade.

Tim Duncan

Similar to Nowitzki, Tim Duncan was extremely loyal to San Antonio, going so far as to take a huge pay cut in 2012 to help provide the team with tax relief. Duncan’s pay cut also aided the Spurs’ efforts to keep the core (key role players Danny Green and Boris Diaw needed to get paid that summer) intact, while helping the team add some more depth (via Express News):

Before even one game of the Spurs’ 2012-13 season is contested, Tim Duncan already has made a significant contribution to the team’s success. By accepting an $11.5 million cut from the $21.15 million salary he earned last season, Duncan enabled the club to re-sign its most coveted free-agent players, add 2009 draftee Nando De Colo and still drop below the NBA’s projected luxury-tax threshold for next season. According to contract figures that have been officially released to all NBA teams, Duncan will be paid $9.64 million in the first season of the three-year deal he signed July 11.

Duncan took an $11.5 million pay cut for 2012-13 from the year prior, after having previously been the third-highest paid player in the NBA. 

Talk about humility.

Duncan’s pay cut also proved hugely impactful, as San Antonio would make it to Game 7 of the NBA Finals in 2012-13, and then won the championship outright in 2013-14, in large part thanks to Duncan’s play… and his reduced salary.

Jalen Brunson

Despite being eligible for a five-year, $269 million super-max contract had he waited to hit free agency this summer, New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson saved the Knicks a whole lot of cap space and tax penalty money when he instead decided to extend his contract with New York in 2024 on a four-year, $156.5 million deal.

Although $156.5 million is generational wealth for any person, Brunson deserves heaps of credit anyway for bypassing on the ability to earn another $113 million with his next contract, a decision that helped New York keep some cap flexibility in this ultra-tricky restrictive CBA era (via ESPN):

The repercussions of Brunson choosing the four-year, $156.5 million max deal over the five-year, $269.1 million deal in 2025 are massive for the Knicks’ ability to keep this team together and continue making roster moves to close the gap on a championship. Brunson’s deal keeps the Knicks out of the second-apron level of the salary cap, a punitive threshold that severely limits a team’s ability to make trades, sign players and use draft picks.

Brunson’s deal made him an even bigger hero in the Big Apple, as the dynamic scoring lead guard just led New York to a second straight Eastern Conference Finals appearance. The former Villanova standout will also have the chance to make some of that money up with his next deal, which could be worth up to an astronomical $418 million over five years if he remains a player of his current caliber in 2029.

Andre Iguodala

After one season with the Denver Nuggets, eventual Finals MVP Andre Iguodala decided to accept a pay cut to join the Warriors via a sign-and-trade in the summer of 2013. Golden State was the team Iguodala had his heart set on joining as long as they could figure out the necessary cap gymnastics. 

Iguodala was reportedly an hour away from signing with Dallas on a ‘lucrative deal,’ turned down four years and $52 million from the Sacramento Kings, as well as five years and $60 million front-loaded dollars, before eventually signing with Golden State on a four-year, $48 million deal (via the San Francisco Chronicle):

To get here, he turned down a four-year, $52 million deal that Sacramento offered July 2 and then pulled, a five-year, $60 million front-loaded deal that Denver had on the table throughout the process, and a lucrative deal with Dallas that Iguodala almost signed an hour before the Warriors were able to create the necessary cap space to offer him four years and $48 million….

Iguodala’s pay cut eventually opened the door for the super team that would form in Golden State, with Iguodala even earning Finals MVP honors for his two-way efforts in the 2016 NBA Finals.

Ray Allen

If it wasn’t clear by now, a lot of the most impactful pay cuts in NBA history have to do with players chasing championships. Another prime example is Ray Allen’s 2012 free-agent decision, which saw him sign with the Heat on a two-year, $6.3 million contract, using a cap mechanism known as the mini mid-level exception. In contrast, the Boston Celtics were reportedly offering Allen a two-year, $12 million contract with a no-trade clause. 

However, Allen had reasons far beyond championship-chasing to leave Boston in favor of the rival Heat, including the fact that he was almost traded by the Celtics during the 2011-12 campaign. According to CBS News, Allen was also benched during the season in favor of Avery Bradley, and reportedly even had beef with the team’s starting point guard, Rajon Rondo, giving the former UConn star an abundance of ammo as far as wanting to leave Boston. Former NBA scribe Adrian Wojnarowski, writing for Yahoo! News at the time, broke down the Allen and Rondo issues in depth back in 2012:

Those were some of the conflicts that Allen had with Rondo, but the stubbornness of the point guard worked to exacerbate everything. Rondo and Allen were non-confrontational, but much of the behind-the-back sniping to teammates and those around the team took a toll. So much of it was sandbox stuff, the kind of grating, ultimately petty issues that occur in every locker room, every workplace. Rondo didn’t chase Allen out of Boston, but their relationship did become a drain in the locker room. Their cold war was something Allen discussed with associates, something that became a concern of management and the coaching staff.

So Allen’s decision to take a pay cut to join Miami went clearly beyond just basketball. (The fact that he ended his career with overall earnings of $182.4 million probably didn’t hurt, either, as Allen was very much not in need of an extra $6 million over his final two seasons.)

Udonis Haslem

The much-discussed player earlier in the piece, Haslem also took a pay cut during Miami’s formation of the Big 3. Instead of signing with Houston or Dallas on five-year deals that could have ranged between $33 million and $35 million, the Miami native instead signed with the Heat on a five-year, $20 million deal, accepting a role as a top role player on what was a loaded squad.

Haslem said he took the pay cut in part to be closer to his ailing mother, and also because he was never a player driven by money (via ESPN):

“This is a combination of having a great opportunity to win, which is why we play this game, and an opportunity to still stay close to my family and be with my mother,” said Haslem, whose mother has been ill for some time. “And also, the opportunity to be a part of something special. We all play this game to win. I’ve never been a person driven by money.”

Haslem had interest from multiple suitors that summer, including from the then-New Jersey Nets, but ultimately chose to make an even bigger monetary sacrifice than his superstar teammates to remain in South Florida and chase some championship hardware.

Mike Miller

An enormous amount of salary was given up to form the Big 3 in Miami back in 2010, as this is now the sixth player on this list – out of eight so far – that suited up for the Heat in that era.

When Miami first picked up James and Bosh to team up with Wade, the one thing critics immediately pointed out would be necessary for the Heat team to function at a high level was shooting, as James was a career 32.9 percent three-point shooter prior to getting to South Beach; Wade was at 28.9 percent up to that point; and Bosh had attempted just 168 total threes over seven seasons (24 per campaign) before he joined the Heat.

So, obviously, Miami needed shooting in a bad way. 

Enter one Mike Miller, who was a 40.5 percent shooter from three prior to 2009-10, and who took less money than he could have on the open market to sign with Miami for the mid-level exception on a deal worth $29 million over five years. 

Miller was rewarded by getting the final two years of his contract amnestied in 2013, but even then, at least he still got his full salary from Miami. Plus, Miller had some big playoff moments during his time with the Heat, including in the decisive Game 5 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals when he went seven-for-eight from three, scoring 23 points in the process.

Gary Payton

Near the end of the Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant era with the Los Angeles Lakers, the team took a shot at revamping for another title run, picking up eventual Hall of Fame point guard Gary Payton – and another player coming up later on this list – for the 2003-04 season.

Payton signed with L.A. on a year-deal for the mid-level exception worth $4.9 million. Payton turned down the possibility of getting signed and traded by his former team, the Milwaukee Bucks, and inking a new contract, which could have been worth more than twice as much money in order to sign with Los Angeles and “follow his dream” to win a championship (via ESPN):

“He could have taken a lot more money to go somewhere else,” Goodwin told ESPN.com Tuesday, referring to efforts by the Portland Trail Blazers to acquire Payton in a sign-and-trade with Milwaukee. “But he’s going to Los Angeles to follow his dream.” …. The Blazers reportedly offered Milwaukee a package featuring Jeff McInnis and Arvydas Sabonis, which could have taken the starting salary of Payton’s next contract into the $10-million range. But the lure of the Lakers — described by Goodwin over the weekend as “absolutely” Payton’s first choice — prompted the nine-time All-Star to resist substantial overtures from Portland and Miami, according to Aldridge.

That dream eventually came true, just not with Los Angeles, as Payton eventually joined the Heat in 2005 and won a ring as a backup point guard for the team in 2005-06.

Granted, Payton played at a high level with the Lakers, putting up 14.6 points, 5.5 assists and 1.2 steals while being tied for 126th in salary that season.

Karl Malone

Like Payton, Karl Malone took a pay cut to sign with Los Angeles in 2003 in hopes of winning a ring before his career ended. According to veteran NBA scribe Marc Stein, Malone had more lucrative offers from San Antonio, Sacramento and Dallas. Instead, the eventual Hall of Famer signed with the Lakers on a one-year minimum worth $1.5 million in order to chase a championship.

That’s not an assumption on our part, as Malone’s agent, Dwight Manley, said that not only did Malone want to go somewhere he felt wanted (Utah apparently didn’t want to re-sign its superstar power forward for the $8 million he reportedly wanted, which was how much John Stockton earned in his final NBA season with the Jazz), but he also wanted to go somewhere he felt he could win a title:

Manley stopped short of saying Malone has ruled out a return to the Utah Jazz, the only team Malone has played for in his 18-season career. Manley did, however, say that Malone is intent on “going where he can win a championship,” which can only enhance the Lakers’ chances.

Malone, Payton and Co. didn’t wind up winning a championship in 2003-04 (Payton eventually would with Miami in 2005-06), but they did come close, getting to the 2004 Finals before falling in five games to the Detroit Pistons.

David West

In 2015, a mid-30s David West opted out of the final year of his contract with the Indiana Pacers, which was set to pay him $12 million in 2015-16, in favor of a one-year, $1.4 million deal with San Antonio.

The reason for West’s pay cut was an obvious one, as West was chasing a championship late in his career. West was also sold on joining San Antonio’s culture (via CBS Sports):

“I’ve always been very strategic in that manner,” West continued. “This was a very calculated decision, it wasn’t something that was made using emotions or anything like that. It was very calculated, very thought out. In examining where I was, who I am as a player, as a person, I felt like this environment would be best suited for me at this moment. It wasn’t necessarily about what I was giving up but more about what I’m looking to gain.”

West did join a juggernaut Spurs squad, helping the team go 67-15 in the regular season before getting bounced in the second round in six games by the Thunder. 

After one season with the Spurs, West then decided to take another pay cut, joining the Warriors ahead of the 2016-17 campaign, taking less money with Golden State (one year, $1.29 million) than he could have with the Spurs. This time, West’s gamble paid off, as the veteran big man was a solid role player on back-to-back championship-winning squads in Golden State.

Manu Ginobili

Coming off a near-championship win in 2012-13, Argentine star Manu Ginobili hit free agency before quickly deciding to re-sign with San Antonio on a two-year, $14 million contract, a significant pay cut from the $14.1 million he had earned the season prior. Ginobili did so out of selflessness, helping keep the Spurs’ championship window open by taking less money than he easily could have elsewhere. 

Ginobili’s decision helped the Spurs retain fellow free agents Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter, both of whom played a part in San Antonio winning the 2013-14 championship. Ginobili also turned back the clock that year, finishing Top 3 in that season’s Sixth Man of the Year vote.