Highest paid NBA players of the last 10 years

Ever since the rise of Michael Jordan and his impact in transforming NBA basketball from a sport popular mainly in the Americas and Europe to a sport accessible to people across the world, the NBA has been raking in the moolah like few other professional sports leagues have. This has created a platform for players to now walk into life-changing wealth, should they be talented and lucky enough to be the first-round draft picks as rookies.

The revised Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between the NBA and the NBPA (NBA Players Association) has now made it possible for players to sign guaranteed deals worth as much as $218 million over 5 years, while it helped raise the salary cap by a jump of 20% all at once.

Who are the highest-paid basketball players over the past decade? Read on to find out.

2008-09: Kevin Garnett

Garnett's 2008-09 salary: $24.75 million

After signing him to two of the biggest contracts in NBA history up until that point, Garnett was traded by the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics in a 7-players-for-1 deal that was the highest number of players traded by a franchise in exchange for one player up until the Chris Paul trade to the Rockets in the summer of 2017.

Garnett was still a premier two-way player in the league at that point, and indeed, he was the bedrock of the Celtics' title contention window from 2007-2012. Having switched to the center position during the latter half of his career in order to extend it as much as he could, Garnett was putting up MVP-caliber numbers in his first season with the Celtics, and was also in the running in the 2008-09 season before going down with a career-altering knee injury.

2009-16: Kobe Bryant

Bryant's total salary from 2009-2016: $179.88 million

The Black Mamba is commonly considered as the greatest player in the Lakers' fabled purple-and-gold uniform, playing 20 years for the franchise from the start of his career to the finish. Despite demanding a trade in 2007, Bryant was always viewed as a lifetime Laker, which is why owner Jeanie Buss had no qualms in giving him a last big payday in 2014.

Bryant was the face of the NBA from 2005 till 2010-11 or so, when LeBron moved to the Heat and became the prohibitive favorite for all team and individual honors out there. Despite earning over $315 million in career salary after his rookie deal expired, there is a distinct possibility that Bryant was indeed underpaid in contrast to his real value to the league over the course of one of the most legendary NBA careers of all time. Yes, even though he was the highest-paid player in the league for 7 straight years.

2016-17: LeBron James

James's 2016-17 salary: $30.96 million

Unquestionably the best player of the 2010s, LeBron James has been the torchbearer of basketball excellence for a time period long enough that the majority of basketball fans active online today have not experienced a world in which James was not at the apex of the basketball evolution tree. Indeed, James looks the part, talks the part and boy has he walked the walk over the course of his legendary career!

After leading Cleveland to its first major sports trophy in 52 years, James signed a 3-year deal with the Cavs that included a player option which he declined in the summer of 2018 for nearly $100 million in total, paying him about $31 million through the course of the 2016-17 NBA season - a time when he still had a vertical leap of 40+ inches.

2017-18: Stephen Curry

The single most important reason why the laughing stock of the NBA is now laughing all the way to the bank while steamrollering 29 other teams en route championship glory, Curry has revolutionized the game.

That's saying quite something for a sport that has been a global sport for a couple of decades, but Curry's status as the greatest shooter of all time has been in little doubt for over 4 years now.

He emasculates defenders individually, making them accessories to his highlight reels while raining hellfire from 30 feet out. Steph's precise offensive moves, his wonderful reading of the game, tireless off-ball work and the ability to get his teammates going puts him out as one of the most potent offensive weapons we've ever seen on a basketball court.

The 5-year, $201 million supermax contract extension he signed in 2016 with the Warriors was all but a formality following the only unanimous MVP campaign he put together the season before.

Edited by Abhinav Munshi