Who is the NBA’s Richest Players?

The NBA’s richest Players: The end-of-season NBA Finals are well underway with the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics battling it out for basketball supremacy. There’s little between the two teams in terms of the NBA Finals betting, but the odds will be the last thing on the players’ minds.

Read LeBron James net worth

Not least of all because they have glory to worry about, but also because the money made from betting and gambling in general is inconsequential to them. The riches of the NBA are eye-watering with players raking in millions of dollars in salary and bonus payments.

In this article we look at some of the NBA’s richest Players in history. Read on to find out who the John D. Rockefeller of the basketball court is…

The NBA’s Richest Players

5. Shaquille O’Neal: $400 Million

The big man needs a big wallet. The former Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics Center started out his professional career in 1992 with Orlando Magic. From there, Shaq’s career went from strength to strength with the 7 Foot 1 player winning an Olympic Gold Medal, four NBA Championships and three NBA Finals MVP awards.

All of that success came with a lot of reward, in 1996 he became the highest paid player in NBA when the Lakers tied him down to a $121 million contract. Now, as a pundit, Shaw reportedly rakes in between $40-60 million from a combination of his salary and endorsements.

The Big Diesel isn’t a miser though, he’s a well-known philanthropist who likes to buy something for someone every time he enters a store. A video of him doing just that, buying a bike for a kid, recently went viral.

4. Junior Bridgeman: $600 Million

Born in East Chicago, Junior Bridgeman began and ended his career with the Milwaukee Bucks, sandwiching in a 2-year stint at the Los Angeles Clippers in between two spells. Whilst Bridgeman was undoubtedly a good player, his career never reached the heights of the rest of the players in the list of NBA’s richest players.

His attempts to win a Championship ring where ultimately unsuccessful and during his career, he never earned more than $350,000 a season. Despite all of this, Bridgeman is worth well over half a billion, thanks to his post-career exploits.

Bridgeman is the owner of Ebony and Jet magazines, two business ventures that have made him incredibly wealthy.

3. Magic Johnson: $620 Million

If you’ve ever listened to Roses by Kanye West you’ll be familiar with the wealth of Magic Johnson. The 62-year-old played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic M7 Boras and Magic Great Danes over a stuttering career that saw him scoop 5 Championship rings.

In 1981 Johnson signed a $25 million contract with the Lakers, which would be the equivalent of a $75 million deal in the modern day. His business ventures outside of the court have contributed to his net worth which stands at a staggering $620 million.

2. LeBron James: $1 Billion

King James as he is known to his fans began his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 before leaving for Miami Heat in 2010 in search of his first NBA Championship. His first was quickly followed by his second with the Heat winning the 2012 and 2013 NBA Finals.

Not content with that feat, LeBron later returned to the Cavaliers in 2014, helping them to overcome their NBA Finals curse by overturning a 3-1 series deficit in 2016 to beat the Golden State Warriors. Nowadays King James plies his trade with the Los Angeles Lakers and is worth a reported $1 billion, not bad right?

1. Michael Jordan: $2.2 Billion

Who else was going to be top of this NBA’s richest players list? Michael Jordan is not only the most famous player to have stepped onto the court, but he is perhaps also the most famous sportsman to have ever lived. 

Throughout his illustrious career, Jordan won 6 NBA Championship rings, was named NBA Finals MVP 6 times in addition to winning two Olympic Gold medals. It’s no wonder then that this living legend made tens of millions of dollars plying his trade on the court.

It’s outside of the court though where Jordan really made his money, raking in huge sums of cash from endorsements and sponsorship deals. According to reports, MJ has earned a reported $1.3 billion from his partnership with Nike.

Source: Glusea