At 25 years old, Luka Doncic is considered one of the best players in the NBA. The Slovenian, who plays against the Boston Celtics in his first NBA Finals, could for the first time receive one of the competition’s star awards, such as MVP as the best player. A sign of how well he has done since landing on American soil in 2019, and what he can achieve in the coming years.
One of the greatest milestones a Slovenian can achieve, aside from a hypothetical NBA ring, lies in the economic aspect. For several years now, salaries in the world’s top basketball competitions have been growing so crazy that players like Luka Doncic can reach $100 million a year. The financial gurus at the franchise headquarters think so and also set a date: 2032-2033.
The current situation favors this group, which, in addition to Doncic, includes such valuable players as Victor Wembanyama (20), Anthony Edwards (22) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (25), Jayson Tatum (26) and Jaylen Brown (27). . Last summer, Brown signed the largest contract in NBA history, worth $304 million over five years. This 2024 will be the moment for Tatum, and in 2025 for Luka Doncic, who, according to information that has emerged in this regard, could sign the most successful contract in the NBA: 346 million for the next five years: almost 70′. kilograms per year, nothing to do with the current salaries of LeBron James or Stephen Curry, who with 50 per year are the absolute leaders. This will be Luka Doncic’s third contract in the NBA: the Slovenian signed his last in 2021, earning 215 million over six years.
Over the past ten years, the value of franchises has increased exponentially, and teams that were once (2013) worth $1.4 billion, such as the Knicks or Lakers, are now worth approximately $6.5 billion. Or the Celtics, whose number grew from 875 million to 4,700 in a decade. In this sense, the most striking example is the situation with the Golden State Warriors, whose number increased from 750 to 7.7 billion, which is the most valuable team of the 30. components of the NBA.
Additionally, the NBA is close to signing a sky-high television rights deal that will be worth about $76 billion over the next 11 years. An agreement that would multiply by 2.5 times the revenue that the championship receives so far, and which would also surpass the NFL, the king of sports in the United States. All this leads to rising wages. So if the NBA is doing well, the players are doing well. “There is a younger generation that Luka is a part of that will take part in this and take him to an even higher economic level,” says Bill Duffy, Luka Doncic’s agent. “One hundred million dollars is truly incredible and shows the power of sports, the power of media, the power of globalization and the economics that drive this business,” he said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
Bigger than Jordan
It’s been over 20 years since the best player of all time left. These were different times. The time when a team salary cap was introduced in 1984, the year of Michael Jordan’s debut (its origins actually date back to the mid-40s, early in the competition, but was repealed after the season). That cap increased by several million dollars a year until 2016, when the league’s current media agreement took effect. That summer, after players rejected league offers to phase in the money, the cap suddenly skyrocketed from $70 million to $94 million. At the moment, the established limit reaches 136 million per franchise.
Throughout his NBA career, Michael Jordan has accumulated $94 million. This is a small number when compared to LeBron James, the absolute king in this section, whose salary will reach 500 million by the time he retires. And based on what comes next, James could end up second to the $1,000 million Luka Doncic could make throughout his NBA career.