Lowest NBA Salary: How Much Do NBA Players at the Bottom Earn?
Often we wonder who the highest-paid NBA basketball players are. However, for every Stephen Curry who earns record-breaking deals, more players are earning the minimum. Looking at the lowest NBA salary, a player with no experience (rookie) will earn $1.1 million or $1,157,153 for the 2024-25 season to be specific. How does this work? Let’s get into the details.
What is the Lowest Salary for a Basketball Player?
The lowest NBA salary still makes you a millionaire. It scales depending on your years of experience and as long as you’re not on a two-way contract (more on this later). For the 2024-25 season, this is how much the NBA minimum salary is with years of experience:
- Zero (rookie): $1,157,153
- One: $1,862,265
- Two: $2,087,519
- Three: $2,162,606
- Four: $2,237,691
- Five: $2,425,403
- Six: $2,613,120
- Seven: $2,800,834
- Eight: $2,988,550
- Nine: $3,003,427
- 10+: $3,303,771
If we ask who the lowest-paid NBA players are, they will likely be undrafted rookies or those taken in the second round. A player like Mouhamed Gueye earns the minimum salary with Charlotte. It’s still a decent NBA starting salary, which is twice as much as those on two-way deals and much more than what these WNBA hotties make.
Now, two-way contracts are a bit more complicated. These were introduced in 2017 as a way for teams to carry players beyond the maximum of 15. Most of these players spend their time in the G League, the NBA’s developmental league. However, they can be recalled or spend up to 50 of the 82 games with the NBA team even if they don’t play any minutes.
For the 2024-25 season, a two-way deal pays over half a million or $578,577 per year. While these are the lowest-paid NBA players, they still make roughly 10 times more than the average salary in America. So don’t feel too bad for these players.
Who Has the Number One Salary in the NBA?
Now, flipping the question, the best NBA players do not earn minimum deals for obvious reasons. Curry has the NBA’s highest salary, which is $55.76 million annually. He deserves it as the two-time MVP and four-time NBA champion changed the way basketball – not just NBA basketball – is played.
Following Curry are two superstar centers who recently won MVP: Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. They earn $51.41 million a year, which is over 50 times the lowest NBA salary.
Others in the top five are the Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant at 51.17 million and his teammate, Bradley Beal at $50.2 million. Durant was also a former MVP while Beal is a three-time All-Star who twice averaged 30+ points in a season.
Surprisingly, LeBron James, arguably still the NBA’s most popular player, is 14th on the list at $48.72 million a season. However, he’s also the richest NBA player considering his net worth.
Is There a Billionaire NBA Player?
NBA salaries are becoming heftier. Curry is the highest-paid player now. But most recently, Celtics star Jayson Tatum inked the largest contract in NBA history at $314 million. This would earn him an average of $62.8 million a season. We are still far from having a billion-dollar contract. But some former stars have achieved the billionaire status.
Of course, Michael Jordan tops the list as Forbes estimates his net worth to be around $3 billion. “His Airness” achieved this over a decade ago and his sale of the Charlotte Hornets for $3 billion further signified his status. Not bad for a player who had alleged gambling issues. He may even have bet on sports with BetUS at some point.
Following Jordan is an old rival in Earvin “Magic” Johnson estimated at $1.2 billion. Like Jordan, Johnson accumulated his wealth by investing in sports franchises, which include the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the MLS’s LAFC.
James rounds out the top three with a net worth of $1 billion. While he’s only 14th on the NBA salary list, he joined the billionaires club in 2022. He has a ton of endorsements plus investments in several businesses like Lyft and Blaze Pizza.
