Pedro Oliveira
In this list, we present you the 5 highest paid players in the NBA during the 2021-2022 season and discuss whether their salaries correspond to their performance.
Being in the middle of the NBA campaign, we are at an ideal time to evaluate the performance of each player during the season, and with the economic growth that the league has seen in recent years, team budgets are higher than ever. It’s a perfect opportunity to review who are the highest paid players in the NBA, and decide if their performances are going to match what their franchises are paying them in 2022. Here we present you the 5 highest-paid players in elite basketball.
5.- Kevin Durant – Brooklyn Nets
After signing one of the biggest contracts in the history of free agents in 2019, Durant currently ranks as the fifth highest paid player in the NBA with a salary of $42,018,900 million dollars for the 2021-2022 season alone, and the figure will not stop increasing as time goes by: during the month of August 2021, the New York franchise and the 33-year-old forward agreed on a maximum contract extension, consisting of 3 extra years in addition to his current contract and an extra $198 million dollars.
KD is currently one of the regular season MVP candidates, leading the Brooklyn Nets at the top of the Eastern Conference and averaging 29.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 52% from the field.
4.- Russell Westbrook – Los Angeles Lakers
With inconsistent and rowdy start to his career with the Los Angeles team, the veteran point guard may be causing a lot of discord among Lakers fans and NBA fans in general by having the fourth-highest salary in the league today: $44,211,146 million for the 2021-2022 season, and at 33 years of age, Westbrook is still dealing with constant criticism towards his low effectiveness, his little contribution in important moments and his possible obsession about his individual stats, all of this causing uproar within the fan base, who still doubt if it will have been worth the trade with the Washington Wizards during the pre-season.
This high salary for the Long Beach native point guard comes from his maximum contract extension while still part of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the start of the 2017-2018 season, spanning 5 years since then in the amount of $206,794,070 million. For the upcoming NBA campaign, Russell has an option to remain with Los Angeles for approximately $47 million, an improvement over his current salary. Brodie is currently averaging 18.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game on 43.7% efficiency from the field and just 29.6% from the three-point line.
3.- James Harden – Philadelphia 76ers
Even with his trade to the Nets exercised the previous season, Harden ranks third among the NBA’s highest-paid players, enjoying this year’s $44,310,840 million for the 2021-2022 season, which is part of the contract extension he signed with the Houston Rockets in 2017, which built on the deal he had with the Texas franchise in 2016. Adding both negotiations together, Harden’s contract currently ends with numbers of $228 million over 6 years, among the largest in the history of the sport.
With his debut season being rather halted due to continuous injuries, the current campaign has brought more consistency to the 32-year-old veteran shooting guard, posting a line of 22.7 points, 10.1 assists, 8 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 2.4 three-pointers per game on 33.8% efficiency.
2.- John Wall – Houston Rockets
The most interesting player on this list definitely. His name has not sounded much during the current season, and is that in fact, has not played a single game within the same despite having the second place in the ranking of the highest paid players in the NBA, with a salary of $44,310,840 million dollars at present. The 31-year-old point guard’s situation is quite peculiar: during the 2017-2018 campaign, while still with the Washington Wizards, Wall signed a maximum contract extension through 4 years, corresponding to the amount of $171,131,520 that runs through the end of the campaign disputed in 2023.
Following this trade, the Washington star was sidelined for the rest of the season with an injury to his left ankle. This injury suffered a re-aggravation due to a post-surgical infection, and in addition to this, Wall suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon while at home while rehabilitating. All this led him to miss the following season (2019-2020). Following this, he was traded to the Rockets (for Russell Westbrook), who tried to compete with him and James Harden during the season, but it didn’t work out, and with Harden being traded to Brooklyn, the organization went into a roster rebuild.
Since his last game of last campaign, Wall has not played another minute in the NBA, where Houston has tried to find a team willing to take his contract and give him minutes, something they are no longer interested in. In his return, Wall averaged 20.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.1 steals.
1.- Stephen Curry – Golden State Warriors
With the level that the two-time NBA MVP is showing, no one is surprised by the fact Stephen Curry occupies the first place in this ranking. He is the highest paid player of this current 2021-2022 season, with a salary of $45,780,966 million, coming from his first extension with Golden State in 2017 (5 years, $201 million), but the 33-year-old point guard will continue to raise this figure thanks to another maximum contract extension he signed at the end of 2021 with the Warriors, which consists of 4 years and $215 million.
Curry has been the highest paid player in the NBA for 5 consecutive seasons and truly, no one should be surprised, because even with his advanced age, he is still among the best players in the NBA. He averages 26 points, 5.3 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.4 steals, 4.8 three pointers in 37.6% efficiency so far this year, and he seems to be one of the candidates to compete for his third MVP title.
