It was reported earlier this week that LeBron James wants to eliminate maximum salary limits for NBA players. One of the reasons for this is Michael Jordan’s 1998 salary, which was $33.1 million.
Currently, NBA maximum salaries are capped at 35 percent of the current salary cap. So this season, LeBron James will make $20.1 million, though he’s arguably worth more than that to the Cavs organization, the city of Cleveland, and to the NBA.
According to Sports Illustrated, an anonymous general manager said Kobe Bryant believes that he and LeBron James are underpaid in comparison to what they would be able to make on the free market.
“Bryant believes that players like himself and LeBron James are underpaid, compared to what they would be worth on the free market (he told friends he thinks James would be worth roughly $75 million on an open market). With his last contract, he felt it was important to demonstrate to younger players that you should never take less than you’re worth.”
When Bryant was asked about this, his response was simple: “If you’re talking just from a business perspective, yeah.”
Bryant also added the following.
“As athletes, especially as public figures, you get the pressure of playing for the love of the game, they always throw that around all the time. Of course you play for the love of the game! But do owners buy teams for the love of the game?”
In 1998, back when Jordan made $33.1 million, there was no maximum salary rule, and all teams were allowed to go over the current salary cap to re-sign their own free agents. Jordan’s 1998 contract would be impossible under the maximum salary rules established after Jordan retired in the summer of 1998, which were in response to Jordan’s monster contract.
If Jordan would have signed the same type of contract today, he would make roughly $66 million per year based on the average salary of NBA players today. If we use Jordan’s once-in-a-lifetime contract from 1998 as the standard, no max salary limit contract and apply it to LeBron James, James would be making roughly three times the amount he’s making under his current contract.
Of course, this is all speculation as to how much James would really make in a true free market. But one thing is for sure: If the NBA had no maximum salary rule for its players, then LeBron James would probably demand — and make — significantly more money per-year than he is now.
