We have all seen the headlines about the staggering amounts that basketball’s top players earn and, in our opinion, they are worth every cent. Still, wouldn’t you just love to know how long it would take them to earn your entire years’ salary?
Interested to find out just how much the sports highest earners are making in comparison to the average Joe, health and fitness gear site Sportarly built an interactive calculator which tells you exactly that.
Spokesperson for the company Jake Dennon said they used the Forbes list of the highest-paid NBA stars in 2019 – 2020 to build the tool.
Dennon added:
“When I put my yearly earnings through the calculator and found that it would take my favourite player, James Harden, just eight hours to earn the same, I was floored. To add insult to injury he wasn’t even top of the list!”.
The data also tells us how long it would take the stars to earn the median US household income (published by the United States Census Bureau) and breaks down how much each player earns per year, month, week, day, hour and second.
The lowest-paid player on the list, Damian Lillard, supposedly earns the median US household income of $68,703 in just 13 hours and 44 minutes. Lebron James, the highest-paid player, earns the same amount in just 6 hours and 30 minutes.
Apparently, the ten highest-paid players earned a jaw-dropping $598 million combined between 2019 and 2020. To offer some context, that amount could buy you:
- 132 Lamborghini Veneno Roadsters.
- 42 luxury helicopters.
- The world’s most expensive apartment (Odeon Tower Penthouse, Monaco).
- 39 private islands like this one.
The top players earn these staggering amounts through premium team contracts and lucrative endorsement deals. However, world-class basketball brings quality entertainment to millions, helps create thousands of jobs around the world and really is priceless.
Play your weekly, monthly and yearly earnings against the highest-paid NBA players here. In the meantime, I am going to go and practise my free throws.
