# How much did nba players used to get paid?



## sherwin

What kind of contracts were Magic Johnson & Larry Bird on? Anyone have league average salary data for past years?


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## Obi-Wan Nowitzki

Under the useful links on the left, go to Basketball-Reference.com. Then search for the player you want. At the end should be their yearly salaries and a total of their career earnings.


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## white360

Magic Johnson
1980 LAL $500,000 
1981 LAL $500,000 
1982 LAL * $1,000,000 
1983 LAL * $1,500,000 
1984 LAL * $2,000,000 
1985 LAL $2,500,000 
1986 LAL $2,500,000 
1987 LAL * $2,500,000 
1988 LAL $2,500,000 
1989 LAL $3,142,860 
1990 LAL * $2,771,430 
1991 LAL $2,400,000 
1992 LAL $2,500,000 
1993 LAL $2,500,000 
1994 LAL $2,500,000 
1995 LAL $14,660,000 
1996 LAL * $225,000 
Career (may be incomplete) $46,199,290


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## white360

Larry Bird
1980 BOS $650,000 
1981 BOS $650,000 
1982 BOS * $937,500 
1983 BOS * $1,225,000 
1984 BOS * $1,512,500 
1985 BOS $1,800,000 
1986 BOS $1,800,000 
1987 BOS * $1,800,000 
1988 BOS $1,800,000 
1989 BOS $1,800,000 
1990 BOS * $1,650,000 
1991 BOS $1,500,000 
1992 BOS $7,070,000 
1993 BOS $2,300,000 
Career (may be incomplete) $26,495,000


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## sherwin

What's the deal with Magic Johnson's 1995 salary? Why did it shoot up like that? He wasn't even playing.


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## Kunlun

Wow, Larry and Magic were making Tractor Traylor type money back then.


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## BG7

sherwin said:


> What's the deal with Magic Johnson's 1995 salary? Why did it shoot up like that? He wasn't even playing.


Probaly up front bonus money that year.

I remember back in the 50's players made less money than they would in a real job. Bob Cousy had a 2nd job outside of the NBA.


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## LanierFan

I remember at one time in the early to mid-1970s, the average NBA salary was $91,000 per year. And that was actually a lot better than it had been, thanks to competition from the ABA.


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## The Future7

Shaq is getting Paid more money next season than Bird made his whole career.


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## Kneepad

Interesting tidbit that lends some perspective...

In the late 70's (I forget the exact year), David Thompson was signed to a then-astounding $4 million dollar contract. Not $4 million per year-- $4 million over the life of the contract, which was 5 years. That was $800K per year-- not even the veteran minimum exception today. The reason Thompson's contract was so astounding is because the next highest player at the time was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who was making something like $350K per year. Thompson was razzed about being "The Four Million Dollar Man" back then much like A-Rod is razzed today for his huge, out-of-porportion contract.

I firmly believe that NBA players today truly don't realize just how good they have it.


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## Pistolballer

that stat about Thompson being that far ahead cant be right... Pistol Pete signed a million dollar contract in 1970 due to the huge bidding war between the Atlanta Hawks and the Carolina Cougars


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## LanierFan

A lot of the ABA contracts were very misleading, because they were backloaded annuities that would yield smaller payments over a long number of years. (A lot of guys would end up nearly broke as rookies because the agents grabbed their overall percentage upfront.) ABA bookkeepers got more creative as time went on, so often the real salary wasn't much larger than those for players in previous years.


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## The_Franchise

sloth said:


> I remember back in the 50's


 :raised_ey


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## Pistolballer

LanierFan said:


> A lot of the ABA contracts were very misleading, because they were backloaded annuities that would yield smaller payments over a long number of years. (A lot of guys would end up nearly broke as rookies because the agents grabbed their overall percentage upfront.) ABA bookkeepers got more creative as time went on, so often the real salary wasn't much larger than those for players in previous years.


we havent mentioned anyone in this thread who ever played in the ABA...


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## LanierFan

^^^You're right, I was thinking pre-merger.


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## HKF

The contracts are all relative. The NBA didn't see a huge salary boon until after the 1992 season with the Dream Team. If you go to Patricia's website (it's on the left hand side links), you'll see that the salaries escalated rather rapidly after that time. Which is the same thing that happened in MLB and NFL.


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## Jamel Irief

Remember when Larry Johnson signed that contract in 93? 12 years for 84 million I believe? Everyone considered that absurd and obscene for like 3 years until Howard, Zo and Shaq all signed for 100 million plus.

I also remember when Hot Rod Williams and Jon Koncack were overpaid for making around 3 or 4 million.


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## Pistolballer

Jamel Irief said:


> Remember when Larry Johnson signed that contract in 93? 12 years for 84 million I believe? Everyone considered that absurd and obscene for like 3 years until Howard, Zo and Shaq all signed for 100 million plus.
> 
> I also remember when Hot Rod Williams and Jon Koncack were overpaid for making around 3 or 4 million.


yeah, didnt Atlanta give Koncak like 12mil? just stupid...


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