Top-tier NBA stars make eye-watering sums of money to play basketball every season, something which has become apparent with the 2024 Team USA roster. The 12-man roster led by LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant, among other fellow superstars, will make $511.6 million through their NBA contracts for the 2024-25 NBA season.
Stephen Curry: $55,761,216
Kevin Durant: $51,179,021
Joel Embiid: $51,415,938
Devin Booker: $49,205,800
LeBron James: $48,728,845
Anthony Davis: $43,219,440
Anthony Edwards: $42,176,400
Tyrese Haliburton: $42,176,400
Jayson Tatum: $34,848,340
Bam Adebayo: $34,848,340
Jrue Holiday: $30,000,000
Derrick White: $28,100,000
TOTAL: $511,659,740
(Contract data taken from Spotrac)
The players on the team combine for 189,038 NBA points, 15 NBA Championships, 59 All-NBA selections, and eight NBA MVP awards. LeBron, Curry, and Durant are doing a lot of the heavy lifting on those overall achievements, but there’s no disputing that this may be one of the most talented Team USA rosters in history.
For context, teams get hard-capped at the second apron for surpassing $189 million on their roster, so a team with this much talent might not be put together until the next generation of stars establish themselves at the level of James, Curry, Durant, and others.
This is inarguably the most expensive roster ever assembled, but NBA players often represent their country for minimal financial compensation, if any at all. Team USA can’t take the most expensive 12-man locker room ever assembled in any sport and fail to bring home the Gold from Paris 2024.
Kawhi Leonard Would Have Made These Numbers Even More Eye-Popping
When we look at the best American players of the last 10 years, the natural name that follows LeBron, Durant, and Curry is Kawhi Leonard. Leonard is a two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP. He was the only other member of Team USA outside the big three to have won a Finals MVP, so he was a key part of their stacked superteam as well.
Unfortunately, Leonard withdrew from Team USA after the Las Vegas scrimmages due to unspecified issues, which many believe to be his season-ending knee injury still not being resolved. Grant Hill commented on the same while speaking to the media.
“I don’t understand knees. We just felt we had to pivot. Not to get into the particulars, in terms of what went into the decision, but we felt it was in our best interests but also in the Clippers’ and Kawhi’s best interests to move in a different direction. We tried, we all tried and gave it a valiant effort. Unfortunately, we had to move forward.”
If Kawhi Leonard remained on the roster instead of Derrick White, the total financial cost would have been far more impactful, with Leonard making over $23 million more than White, bringing the total cost of this roster in NBA terms to be near $550 million.
Unfortunately for him, he won’t be a part of one of the greatest rosters ever assembled in Team USA history. Nor will reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, who was snubbed for White and could have substantially increased the dollar value of this team as he will make $49.2 million next season.
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