Unlike in soccer, there's far less (little really) debate in basketball about the "best ever". Michael Jordan is easily consider by most basketball fans as that player. He not only lifted the Chicago Bulls to 6 championships but also globalized the NBA, bringing it billions of revenues in the 1980s and 1990s. So it's interesting to compare his salary with that of today's superstars.
Well, this article does just that. And MJ's 1998 salary of $33 million or $55 million in current dollar keeps him ahead of today's highest paid player Stephen Curry, whose 2021 salary is $45 million. But what's remarkable is how low Jordan's pay was for many years. The Chicago Bulls and the NBA as a whole got a great deal for most of his career (click to enlarge):
Jordan played 16 seasons in the NBA, really 14 (let's not count the 2 seasons with the Wizards). Only in two of those, 1997 and 1998, did he make more than $5 million per year! Curry's been in the NBA for 13 seasons, but he's pulled down an eight figure salary in 9 of them.
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