will make a career-low $3.8 million<\/a> with the Philadelphia 76ers next season, his 24th in the NBA, and that will put him behind nearly 20 college players.<\/p>\nHow many college basketball players will make more money than LeBron?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a big jump from last season, when only a handful of college players were in the $4 million range or higher, despite an all-time freshman class led by AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer. But despite criticism from coaches, the ceiling keeps rising.<\/p>\n
At least some of that spending surge is due to several of the players returning to college who could have been drafted, causing college programs to effectively \u201cbid\u201d against the NBA\u2019s rookie salary scale to lure them back to campus.<\/p>\n
Former Kentucky forward Jayden Quaintance, who was selected 20th overall in June\u2019s NBA Draft, wound up being the de facto line of demarcation in that respect. The 6-foot-10 big man is set to earn $3.9 million as a rookie with the San Antonio Spurs \u2014 just more than what the four-time MVP will take home with Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s Thomas Haugh is expected to be the highest-paid player in college basketball next season after he withdrew from the 2026 NBA Draft despite being projected a first-round pick. Matt Norlander of CBS reported Haugh\u2019s earnings could exceed $10 million this season with the Gators, which is more than double what James will make.<\/p>\n
Following discussions with multiple college coaches, general managers and NBA scouts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect competitive interests, we know these 18 players will all be making at least $3.9 million.<\/p>\n
PlayerPositionTeamTransfer portal ranking<\/p>\n
Aiden Sherrell<\/p>\n
Forward<\/p>\n
No. 20<\/p>\n
David Punch<\/p>\n
Forward<\/p>\n
No. 7<\/p>\n
Flory Bidunga<\/p>\n
Center<\/p>\n
No. 1<\/p>\n
Jackson Shelstad<\/p>\n
Guard<\/p>\n
No. 9<\/p>\n
John Blackwell<\/p>\n
Guard<\/p>\n
No. 3<\/p>\n
JT Toppin<\/p>\n
Forward<\/p>\n
Returned to team<\/p>\n
Juke Harris<\/p>\n
Guard<\/p>\n
No. 2<\/p>\n
Massamba Diop<\/p>\n
Center<\/p>\n
No. 29<\/p>\n
Milan Momcilovic<\/p>\n
Forward<\/p>\n
No. 4<\/p>\n
Moustapha Thiam<\/p>\n
Center<\/p>\n
No. 13<\/p>\n
Nikola Kusturica<\/p>\n
Forward<\/p>\n
Freshman<\/p>\n
PJ Haggerty<\/p>\n
Guard<\/p>\n
No. 8<\/p>\n
Samet Yigitoglu<\/p>\n
Center<\/p>\n
No. 51<\/p>\n
Sananda Fru<\/p>\n
Center<\/p>\n
No. 39<\/p>\n
Thomas Haugh<\/p>\n
Forward<\/p>\n
Returned to team<\/p>\n
Tounde Yessoufou<\/p>\n
Guard<\/p>\n
No. 5<\/p>\n
Tyran Stokes<\/p>\n
Guard<\/p>\n
Freshman<\/p>\n
Zoom Diallo<\/p>\n
Guard<\/p>\n
No. 45<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a lot of college hoopers \u2014 some of whom may never make a mark in the NBA and all of whom are destined to fall short of James\u2019 greatness \u2014 making more than him next season. And that\u2019s not all they\u2019ve got on him. None of them were born as of June 26, 2003, the day he was drafted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 18 men\u2019s college basketball players will earn more than LeBron James next season. The last time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,691,950,4250,6523,3730,3075,1984,14182,354,1043,6,231,772,1544,10,218,1797,1153,1640,4262],"class_list":["post-795421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-florida-gators","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-marquette-golden-eagles","tag-mens-college-basketball","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-nba","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-sports-business","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-ucla-bruins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116980144098459861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}