Highest-Paid NBA Players 1984-2026 | Jordan vs Curry

Who were the highest-paid NBA players from 1984 to 2026? This animated bar chart tracks basketball's biggest annual salaries across the eras of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Stephen Curry. All salaries are shown in September 2026 US dollars so the contracts can be compared across generations. The story begins with the Lakers and Celtics rivalry and the early years of the NBA salary cap. Patrick Ewing, David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon join the highest earners as the league grows, the Dream Team takes basketball worldwide and superstar contracts become a bigger part of the sport's business. Watch Michael Jordan's extraordinary Chicago Bulls contracts change the rankings in the 1990s. Kevin Garnett's $126 million extension, Shaq's move to Los Angeles and the rise of Kobe Bryant bring another shift in NBA salaries. Lockouts, free agency and championship teams reshape the list through the 2000s. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry lead the next era as television revenue and larger salary caps bring record contracts. The comparison continues through the supermax years with Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and other stars competing among the league's highest-paid players. These rankings compare annual NBA contract salaries, including reported guaranteed commitments. The 2026 endpoint includes signed salaries for the 2026-27 season. Which NBA contract surprised you most? Big Data Motion brings sports, money and world history to life through animated data visualizations. Sources include Basketball Reference, Patricia Bender's NBA salary archive, NBA and NBPA records, contemporary reporting and BLS inflation data. Music by Scott Buckley Legacy, Titan, Uprising and Starfire https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Player photo sources and individual credits are included in the episode's image credits file. #NBA #NBASalaries #HighestPaidNBAPlayers #MichaelJordan #StephenCurry #BasketballHistory #BarChartRace #BigDataMotion