The NBA has seen remarkable growth over the years, and nothing reflects this quite like the soaring player contracts. Even the role players’ earnings have surged each decade, leaving fans curious about the reasons. Amidst widespread interest in this matter, 2x champion Vernon Maxwell recently shared his thoughts.
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On the Club 520 Podcast, the 58-year-old initially voiced his disbelief over active players effortlessly landing lucrative deals. Soon Jeff Teague weighed in. He referenced Max Christie’s recent 4-year, $32 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers to point out how an $8 million annual salary was considered an exceptional offer until a decade ago.
In recent years, this has turned out to be the new norm.
Following this, Maxwell revealed the reasons behind the skyrocketing of player contracts. He singled out the exponential growth in the league’s TV deals as the major driver.
However, he soon discussed how this trend of newer generations surpassing their predecessors in earnings had been longstanding in the NBA. Highlighting Julius Erving, aka Dr. J., as an example, he explained:
“These TV deals, that’s where the money come at now. They got to pay these motherf***ers… And they getting a bigger deal getting ready to come now… I ain’t mad at them because Dr. J came in before me and I’m sure Dr. J was like, ‘Damn, how Maxwell making more motherf***ing money than I made'”.
These observations undoubtedly showcased all facets of this situation. With the rise of the NBA, the median player salaries grew consistently. For example, during Erving’s rookie season in 1973/74, nearly half of the league’s players earned less than $65,000 annually. By the time Maxwell entered the league in 1988, the minimum salary had already risen to $100,000.
This trend persisted over the following decades, before experiencing a dramatic surge in recent years. Today, the NBA rookies could earn more than past icons ever did. For example, Zaccharie Risacher, the 1st overall pick of the 2024 draft, signed a 4-year, $57 million contract with the Atlanta Hawks. This alone surpassed the combined career earnings of both Maxwell and Erving.
As Maxwell rightly mentioned, the NBA’s broadcasting deals had been crucial to this rise. After all, the league recently secured an 11-year, $76 billion TV contract with The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, and Amazon, making headlines across the sports world.
This new deal represented a significant leap, with a nearly $4.2 billion annual increase over the ongoing 9-year, $24 billion agreement.
This gave the top stars the leverage to negotiate staggering raises. This, in turn, again pushed up the median player earnings. As a result, even role players saw an increase in their salaries, ushering in a new era of financial growth within the league.
