How NBA contracts compare to the stars of the NFL: The numbers might shock you 

The numbers are astronomical. The contracts are historical. Some of the NBA players getting these massive contract are unbelievable. Don’t get me wrong, any one who is in the NBA is talented and deserves to be compensated well, but some of them are bench players making more than the most recognizable faces in the NFL.

OKC breaking the bank

The news out of Oklahoma City has been astonishing. Just weeks after winning the cities first title, the people in the front office have made sure to lock the stars in long term. Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren all signed extensions, none for less than $250 million and for a total of $822 million.

It wasn’t too long ago that the top stars in the NBA were being paid well, but not the kind of numbers like we are seeing lately. Let’s put it like this, 12 years ago, when Kobe Bryant, at the peak of his career was making almost $28 million a year. That was his richest contract. Just over a decade later, SGA just signed a four-year deal worth $68,108,432 year. That’s well over double what Kobe was making.

So why the skyrocketing of contracts in the recent years? The global reach of the game is higher than ever. The game is more accessible than ever. Most of all the collective bargaining agreements and the TV deals are what are driving the contracts to sky rocket. For that reason guys you may have never heard of are getting paid salaries you could never dream of.

Tale of the tape

Thanks to the good folks at Bleacher Report who have broken some of the comparisons down, we will give you a look at some of the top paid players in the NFL and their NBA salary counterpart. First lets go big. Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs three-time Super Bowl winning QB makes $45 million a year after singing a 10-year $450 million deal a few years ago. Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies makes three million dollars more than him a year. Jackson Jr. was the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year, and a two time All-Star, but he’s far from the Patrick Mahomes of the NBA.

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Moving on, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, SGA’s cousin and the Minnesota Timberwolves forward who comes off the bench most of the time, makes $15.5 million a year. That is half a million more than Baltimore Ravens RB, Derrick Henry. Henry is considered one of the best running backs of this generation. Meanwhile Alexander-Walker hasn’t averaged double digits scoring in five years.

There are a few more than Bleacher Report have laid out, but the most outrageous one is Toronto Raptors’ Jakob Poeltl who makes $28.2 million a year. I watch a lot of NBA, I have no idea who that is. According to Google he had a career high year, averaging 14.5 ppg, and 9.6 rpg. I’ll give it to him, those are solid numbers. But Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt who has probably been the best defender in the game for the last half decade makes $200,000 less than him per year. Watt is currently in a holdout so he will be looking to join a new echelon of NBA players to compare paychecks with, but he nor any one in the NFL will ever catch up to the top paid players in the NBA.