As a top 75 player in NBA history, Charles Barkley was one of the league’s highest earners during his day, with a career earning total of $40.3 million.
While that sounds like a lot to the average citizen, it’s chump change in today’s NBA, with guys like Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, and Bradley Beal all making close to $40 million per year.
On the subject of today’s inflated salaries and the kind of players who gave secured them, Chuck said on ESPN’s First Take this week that he believes teams have gotten far too loose with their money.
“I don’t want to offend anybody, but we’re paying janitors, we’re paying plumbers, we’re paying bums today,” said Barkley. “We’re just giving $200-300 million out like candy. I’m not bad, you get whatever they pay you. I just hope you appreciate that you the luckiest dude in the world who was born at the right time. But it has nothing to do with the money anymore.”
Charles Barkley sounds off on today's player salaries 😳
"We're paying bums today … We're just giving $200-300 million out like candy." pic.twitter.com/SXQKNAoUez
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 27, 2023
Players have gained a lot of power and status over the years, and that has translated into more financial opportunities. Thanks to the success of the league and solid viewership numbers, teams today have more money to offer than they’ve ever had before.
And while Chuck didn’t name any players by name, it’s clear that he only sees the top 5-10 players in the league as deserving of that kind of money.
Are NBA Athletes Overpaid In Today’s NBA?
Typically, max money was reserved for only the elite of the elite. Recently, that has changed in a huge way, and guys who are classified as sidekicks or secondary stars can secure more money in a single contract than Charles Barkley earned in his entire career.
Couple that fact with load management and an overall increase in player power, and the case can be made that players have it way better now than at any point in NBA history.
Of course, players are also overall just better than they were in Barkley’s day. The league is deeper and more talented than it’s ever been and continues to get more and more competitive every year.
So you can’t blame the players for accepting the money that’s offered to them, especially because most of them have earned it with impressive play.
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