This is seriously fucked up, yo. The obvious answer is "everybody." But if we admit of degrees, it's hard to beat Erick Dampier at #73. Check out who's one spot behind David Lee at #87.
Theo Ratliff, probably. Can't get too excited. Is Danny Ferry even on the list? A more interesting list would be adjusted for #years in league and inflation - something like $/year adjusted to 2012 dollars for players who played 8 or more years. Actually, come to think of it, advanced stats might be interesting. How about 2012 dollars/win over a career of at least 500 games. As for MJ, yawn. He wasn't paid so much because it has always been understood that he made huge sums from his endorsements.
It's funny that the first 5 are legit superstars. Then you have Joe Johnson. It would be interesting to see the same list, but instead of how much money they made, how much money they have left.
You don't seriously believe that, do you? That Jerry Krause said to him "Mikey, because Hanes and Nike are paying you loads we don't have to pay you as much, do we?" Yeah, David Falk would really go for that. Jordan still holds the record for highest annual salary, and probably will for a long time.
Michael played in an earlier generation when $5 million was a LOT of money. It wasn't until late in his career when he made something like $20 million and $30 million over a two year stretch that he was paid what he was worth. Even then, the huge two year contract wasn't for current performance, it was a sort of lifetime achievement award for past accomplishments. Given the way NBA salaries have fluctuated over the years, it would be interesting to see these normalized to something like equivalent 2000 NBA dollars. BNM
When I first read the title of this thread I thought they meant on this board and I was going to say HCP.
Wow, so many guys severely overpaid on that list. It's an absolute crime that Stephon Marbury has made more money, over a much shorter career than Steve Nash. Others that stand out: 34 Michael Finley 37 - Baron Davis 41 - Penny Hardaway (made more than Patrick Ewing) 44 Allen Houston (made more than David Robinson) 55 - Mike Bibby (made more than Hakeem) 60 Steve Francis 75 Vin Baker 84 Derrick Coleman (made more than Michael Jordan) 89 Hedo Turkoglu (at least we didn't give him any of it) BNM
