What Is the Average NBA Salary?

Player salaries in the sports world have risen dramatically over the past decade due to high visibility and massive TV contracts. Franchises are more valuable than ever and the resulting revenues have been passed on to athletes. Nowhere is that more apparent than the NBA, where average salary among players is the highest in professional sports.

The NBA’s top players make more money per year than any other athletes. For the 2023-24 season, Stephen Curry has the biggest salary are $51.9 million, followed by Nikola Jokic and LeBron James at $47.6 million each. Those numbers certainly lift the league’s average salary considerably.

The minimum salary for players signing contracts during the 2023-24 season is $1.1 million. That is for a player with no years of experience, but the minimum deal for a veteran with 10 or more years of experience is $3.2 million. When you combine the numbers from salaries across the league, the average NBA salary winds up at around $9.7 million. That figure is far higher than the average MLB salary ($4.9 million) and massive compared to the NFL’s number of $2.8 million.