NBA's Underpaid Players Lead The Way In Playoffs? Only 1 Of Top 15 Paid Stars Remains In Fight For NBA Championship

The high pay of athletes has been a hot topic in recent years, including the start of the 2024 WNBA season with rookie and number-one overall pick Caitlin Clark's starting salary compared to NBA players.

To make matters worse, 14 of the 15 highest-paid NBA players are not on the final four teams fighting to win the 2024 NBA Championship.

What Happened: Four teams remain in the NBA Playoffs and many of the top stars and highest-paid players including Steph Curry and LeBron James are no longer playing with a chance for another NBA Championship.

According to data from Spotrac, only one of the 15 highest-paid players for the 2023-2024 NBA season is currently still playing in the NBA Playoffs. Here are the 15 highest-paid players for the season.

• Steph Curry, $51.9 million
• Joel Embiid, $47.6 million
• LeBron James, $47.6 million
• Nikola Jokic, $47.6 million
• Bradley Beal, $47.6 million
• Kevin Durant, $46.4 million
• Damian Lillard, $45.6 million
• Giannis Antetokounmpo, $45.6 million
• Kawhi Leonard, $45.6 million
• Paul George, $45.6 million
• Jimmy Butler, $45.1 million
• Klay Thompson, $43.2 million
• Rudy Gobert, $41 million
• Fred VanVleet, $40.8 million
• Anthony Davis, $40.6 million

Of the 15, only 13th-ranked Gobert is still in the NBA Playoffs. Gobert's Minnesota Timberwolves are in the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. It's worth noting that many of the players above made the NBA Playoffs and were knocked out in early rounds.

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What's Next: Gobert is one of the keys to the Timberwolves and their chances to win an NBA title. The four-time NBA defensive player of the year is averaging 12.2 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in the NBA Playoffs while making 59.7% of his shots. During the regular season, Gobert averaged 14.0 points and 12.9 rebounds per game while making 66.1% of his shots, which was second in the NBA.

The current betting odds to win the NBA Championship at sportsbook DraftKings Inc DKNG are:

Boston Celtics: -165

Dallas Mavericks: +340

Minnesota Timberwolves: +450

Indiana Pacers: +3,500

The Mavericks lead the Timberwolves 1-0 in the best-of-seven series. All seven games can be viewed on Warner Bros. Discovery WBD-owned TNT. Game 2 is on May 24 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The third-seeded Timberwolves have Karl-Anthony Towns, who ranks at 24 for salary this season at $36.0 million.

The Dallas Mavericks, which is the number-five seed in the Western Conference, have Luka Doncic, who ranks at 16 for pay at $40.0 million and Kyrie Irving, who ranks at 22 at $37.0 million.

For the Eastern Conference finals, the number-one-seeded Boston Celtics have a 1-0 lead on the sixth-seeded Indiana Packers. The games all air on ESPN and ABC, units of Walt Disney Co DIS. Game 2 is May 23 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The Celtics have four players rank in the top 45 highest paid, but none that rank in the top 20 according to Marca. Kristaps Porzingis, who is injured and played only four games in the playoffs, is the team’s highest-paid player ranking at 24 at $36.0 million. Celtics star Jaylen Brown is at 42 for the highest-paid player but will jump to seventh next year as he starts the richest deal in NBA history valued at $303.7 million.

The Indiana Pacers highest-paid player is Myles Turner who ranks 69 at $21.0 million. The team's star Tyrese Haliburton ranks 207 at $5.8 million but will kick off a new five-year $204.5 million deal next year ranking among the top 35 highest-paid players.

Adding to the parity in this year’s NBA Playoffs is the fact that of the four teams that remain, the winner will become the sixth different team to win an NBA Championship in the past six years.

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