Are NBA players actually underpaid?

New bumper contract

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After winning the 2025 NBA Championship, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was rewarded with a four-year, $285 million contract (£210m/€245m), earning approximately $71.25 million (£52.8m/€60.6m) per year.

Surpassing Tatum

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Gilgeous-Alexander's contract surpassed Jayson Tatum's 2024 Boston Celtics bumper deal as the largest contract in NBA history. Tatum signed a five-year, $314 million (£233m/€268m) contract after helping the Celtics to an NBA title in 2024.

Average salary

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According to CBS Sports, the average NBA player earns $12 million (£8.3m/€10.2m) annually, $9 million (£6.6m/€7.7m) more than the average NFL salary during the 2024/25 season.

One of the GOATs

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Stephen Curry is widely regarded as one of the greatest shooters the NBA has ever seen, having scored the most three-pointers in history and won four NBA Championships as a member of the Golden State Warriors.

Are they underpaid?

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Curry, who is set to make nearly $60 million (£45m/€51m) during the 2025/26 season, spoke in a rare interview with Complex in July 2025 and claimed that he and his NBA counterparts are underpaid despite the incredible amounts of money they already make.

“We can’t participate in equity”

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According to Complex, Curry said: "I think, because of the way the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) is structured right now, we can't participate in equity. And that's a big deal because it is a partnership with ownership. It's a partnership with the league, and we're on the short term of that revenue."

"We are underpaid"

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"Those [contract] numbers sound crazy, but what the league is doing, from whatever era you want to compare it to, to now, is probably 10x that. The idea that we can't participate in equity while we're playing is part of why I would say yes, we are underpaid, because we want to be able to participate in that rise."

Taking ownership

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Curry believes that players should be able to earn ownership stakes in their team while they are still playing, which is currently not allowed by the NBA's collective bargaining agreement.

Hitting $1 billion

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Does Curry have a point, though? According to Forbes, in 2018, every single NBA team had surpassed $1 billion in value, a stark contrast from the team's valuations in 2000.

Rising in value

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In 2000, the New York Knicks were the most valuable franchise at $395 million (£294m/€338m). In 2024, they were worth $7.5 billion (£5.2b/€6.3b). In 2025, the Buss family sold the Los Angeles Lakers for an estimated $10 billion (£7.4b/€8.5b) to Mark Walter.

Even the lower franchises

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According to ESPN, the Charlotte Hornets are one of the worst-performing teams in the NBA and have one of the smallest markets. However, in 2023, their former owner, Michael Jordan, sold the franchise for $3 billion (£2.2b/€2.5b).

Thanks to his success

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Largely thanks to Steph Curry and his remarkable success with the Warriors, the franchise's valuation increased from $168 million (£125m/€144m) in 2000 to an estimated $8.8 billion (£6.5b/€7.5b) by 2024.

Easy to understand why

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When you see massive jumps in value like this, it's easy to understand why Curry and his fellow NBA superstars would feel like they deserve to be paid accordingly for the value they have brought to the league.

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