This is Michael Jordan’s NBA salary in 2025 adjusted for inflation: how it compares to Curry, LeBron, Jokic...

Michael Jordan played 15 seasons in the NBA. Over that span, he earned roughly $94 million in salary. Kyrie Irving, the No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft and, if not for injury – he tore the ACL in his left knee in March – would currently be playing his 15th season, has already cleared $300 million.

Twenty-seven years separate the debut of one from the other – Jordan was selected third overall in a draft topped by Hakeem Olajuwon – and the value of the dollar has changed dramatically. Still, the question remains: just how well paid was MJ over the course of his career?

What was Michael Jordan’s first salary?

His first contract with the Chicago Bulls after being drafted was barely over half a million dollars, and the New York native did not reach seven figures until his fifth season in Chicago, when he earned $2 million. His salary did rise over time, but very gradually, before exploding in his final two seasons with the Bulls, when he was paid $30.14 million in 1996-97 and $33.14 million the following year.

He was the first player to break the $30 million barrier, doing so because he had become a brand unto himself – and because the Bulls were forced to reach that figure to avoid losing a player who had already delivered four championships and would go on to add two more, and who otherwise might have ended up with the Knicks. It took years before other players reached that $30 million mark, which today no longer seems so extraordinary – 59 players have hit it this season. The next to do so were Kobe Bryant (2013-14) and LeBron James (2016-17).

What would Michael Jordan’s salary look like once adjusted for inflation?

Those $30-plus million paychecks from the mid-90s would translate to roughly $60-65 million today. That would make him the highest-paid player ever, because at present no one reaches $60 million. Stephen Curry, the top earner in the 2025-26 season, comes very close at $59.6 million, ahead of Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid (both at $55.2 million). Next season, however, that threshold will be crossed: in the final year of his deal with Golden State, Curry will earn $62.59 million.

LeBron James is the player who has earned the most in NBA salary history, at $531 million – not only because he has played more seasons than anyone else (23), but because he has not dipped below $30 million since first reaching that level in 2016-17. This season he will make $48.7 million and next year, if he exercises his player option with the Lakers, he would earn $53.6 million, pushing him close to the $600 million mark.

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