• The salary of professional basketball players has grown at an astronomical rate, close to 12,500%, over the last twenty years
• Some of the top players in the NBA make well over $15 million dollars a year in salary alone which excludes any endorsement deals

Here at Electro-Mech, we make it our goal to keep you informed on all the latest in baseball news, trends, lates and greats, because we’re more than just an electronic scoreboards (and paychecks) light up as our favorite players rack in the points (and dough in this case). Read on to see what some of your favorite NBA players make on a paycheck.

The history of an average basketball players salary has increased dramatically from the 1970’s and 1980’s to where they are today. In addition to their base salaries, the top players often have endorsement deals that total in the millions of dollars as well. It’s a far cry from what players earned only twenty years ago.

Currently, Lebron James is the highest paid NBA player with a yearly salary of $40,445,000, which includes endorsements as well as his NBA salary. Believe it or not, if you were to exclude endorsement earnings, Lebron would not be the highest player in the NBA. That honor goes to Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics who earns $22,000,000 in NBA salary alone.

With numbers like these, it’s no wonder many former players are bitter about the amount of money earned by today’s players. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, two of the best players in league at the time, helped spread the popularity of the NBA around the globe. But neither player earned anywhere near the amount of Kevin Garnett’s salary. Taking nothing away from Kevin Garnett as he is one of the best players in the league, but the fact remains he won his first championship last year. Bird and Magic were team leaders who elevated the play of themselves and everyone around them, yet their salaries were a drop in the bucket compared to Garnett’s.

To put things in perspective, the average NBA salary twenty years ago was $20,000. Today, the average NBA salary is $2,500,000 making them the second highest average salary next to Major League Baseball. The average salary in that league was $3,154,000 in 2005. There’s no doubt that number has increased today. The dramatic rise in salaries forced the NBA to review its league wide salary policies. After careful consideration, the NBA instituted a salary cap for the 1984-85 seasons in an effort to level the playing field for some of the smaller market franchises. Smaller market teams such as Seattle and Charlotte just couldn’t compete with large market franchises like the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Lakers when it came to signing big name free agents.

Given the revenue generated by the NBA it’s a safe bet that player’s salaries are only going to continue to rise. The next big class of free agents are due to hit the open market after the 2009-2010 basketball season. This class includes some of the top players in the league such as Chris Bosch of the Toronto Raptors and Duane Wade of the Miami Heat. Then there’s the ultimate free agent to be in Lebron James. Each of these players will command huge multi-million dollar contracts from whichever team signs them.