With the implementation of a salary cap and a limit on player salaries, there has always been a belief that the biggest names in the NBA are underpaid.
Last season, Kobe Bryant was the highest-paid player in the NBA after making over $30 million and even that was a bit of an anomaly. Bryant’s tenure in the league and the fact that he has never changed teams was a major factor in why he was able to make that much. It will take an incredibly rare and lengthy career for another player to make such a number during a single season. Only Michael Jordan before Kobe had made that much due to cap restrictions.
So how much would a guy like LeBron James be worth if there was no limit on the amount that he could make? There have been estimates that James would be worth between $50 and $60 million on the open market. Instead of estimating the true value, the folks over at CableTV.com put together an infograph that shows James actual value to his team, a whopping $31 million per season. Not surprisingly, James was paid a little more than half of what he should’ve earned.