Former NBA champion David West took a shot at Isaiah Hartenstein’s massive new three-year, $87 million contract with the Thunder. On his Instagram, West shared an image of Hartenstein’s new contract announcement, with a smaller picture of his statistics highlighted, suggesting he didn’t deserve the money he was getting.
“What a time to be an NBA Player!”
Hartenstein’s new contract pays him about $29 million a year, something David West cannot understand given that Hartenstein only averaged 7.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.5 assists last season with the Knicks. Obviously, the work Hartenstein puts in off the ball is incredible and played a big role in him earning the contract he got.
David West played in the NBA for 15 seasons and was a two-time NBA All-Star. His career averages were great. In his best season, he played for the Pelicans and averaged 21.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists.
He even won two NBA championships in his final seasons, playing for the Golden State Warriors. Even accounting for inflation, West never got a contract as big as West at any point in his career.
The largest contract West ever signed was in 2007 when he signed a four-year, $37 million contract with the New Orleans Hornets. Adjusting for inflation, West made $53,785,707 in that contract, while being an All-Star, still much less than what Hartenstein is making.
Even if we look at his Indiana Pacers stint, where he signed two separate contracts; a two-year, $20 million, and three-year, $36 million (opted out after year two), he still made significantly less money after inflation, earning just $27 million and $31 million from both contracts respectively.
In fact, West’s career earnings in the NBA, after accounting for inflation, was $127,532,703, only $40 million more than what Hartenstein will make in his three years at OKC. While West might come across as slightly bitter, he is justified in questioning the massive size of modern NBA contracts.
NBA Contracts Expected To Become Even More Lucrative
Earlier this week, Jayson Tatum signed what is now the most expensive contract in NBA history, signing a five-year, $315 million extension with the Celtics. He toppled Jaylen Brown, his teammate, who had the most expensive contract in the NBA up until that point, signing a five-year, $286 million extension in 2023.
Tatum isn’t expected to get more than $25.2 million each season after taxes. Nonetheless, he is still the highest-paid player in the NBA. With the league’s popularity and value skyrocketing, these massive contracts are to be expected.
In fact, with the NBA signing a $7 billion media rights deal with NBC Universal, Disney, and Amazon Prime, these contracts are expected to become very expensive. Supermax players could earn up to $95 million a year with the projected increases in the NBA’s salary caps thanks to these new media rights deals.
Right now, NBA teams are in a financially healthy place. But with the new salary cap rules, spending money is no longer the easy route to the top that it once was. Teams must balance their cap and the respective aprons in order to ensure that they have room to tinker with their roster.
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