Lifestyles of the NBA’s Richest and Famousest
Sports Illustrated just released its 2008 “Fortunate 50” list of the highest earning U.S. athletes, and once again (this is the fifth annual), NBA players monopolize the list. In all, a crazy 26 ballers and shot-callers are featured, including two more (Yao and Dirk) on the “International 20.” (For team sport athletes, the figures are for each guy’s most recently completed season and for winnings-based guys, it is the 2007 calendar year.)
The total sums combine the athletes salary (or winnings) with his estimated endorsements. Here’s how the sports stack up by number of athletes represented followed by the list of the top NBA guys:
NBA - 26
MLB - 10
NFL - 7
PGA - 3
NASCAR - 3
Boxing - 1
3. LeBron - $40.5 million
5. Kobe - $35.5 million
6. Shaq - $35.0 million
8. KG - $31.0 million
12. AI - $27.1 million
13. Kevin Durant - $26.0 million
16. DWade - $25.0 million
17. TMac - $25.0 million
18. Melo - $22.6 million
19. Tim Duncan - $22.5 million
21. Michael Finley - $22.2 million
22. Dwight Howard- $21.6 million
24. JKIdd - $21.0 million
25. Starbury - $21.0 million
27. JO - $20.5 million
29. Baron Davis - $18.9 million
31. Stevie “Franchise” - $18.2 million
32. Vince Carter - $18.0 million
33. Paul Pierce - $17.9 million
36. Matrix - $17.0 million
38. Ray Allen - $16.8 million
39. Rashard Lewis - $16.7 million
40. Antawn Jamison - $16.6 million
45. Big Ben - $16.2 million
47. Elton Brand - $15.8 million
48. Amare - $15.8 million
Writing out that list, my first thought was that teams/ad execs sure are paying a helluva lot of money to people that require me to type their full name for identification purposes. My second thought was that I got all the way to number 36 on the list before a single NBA guy had a decent enough nickname to use that wasn’t just a play of their actual name (okay…The Truth at 33 should count but even after the Finals MVP, I’m still not sure it’s ubiquitous enough. Even counting Pierce, him, Marion and Flash are really the only three. Quick, someone make Tough Juice your spokesman.).
For some better analysis, head over to the post on the SI list by Jones On The NBA’s, who, in looking at how much each player is making in just endorsements, hopes to come up with an NBA player marketing database.
Because all else I’ve got on this is a few Fun Facts:
- The entire Boston Three Party made the list.
- Steve Francis made $330,909.09 per point this season.
- Mark Cuban paid Michael Finley $18.6 million to not play for the Mavs this year.
- CP3, Brandon Roy, Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley all made the “Future Fortunates,” which is a list of the athletes SI thinks will be there next year or soon thereafter.
And some non-NBA-related Fun Facts:
- The combined earnings of Tiger and Phil (#1 and #2 overall with $127.9 million and $62.4 million, respectively) is more than the combined earnings of LeBron, Kobe, Shaq, KG, AI and Jason Kidd.
- No U.S. females made the list, but Maria Sharapova is 13th on the International 20 with $21.8 million.
- Four of the ten MLB players featured play for the Yankees (Hideki Matsui, who was on the International 20, makes five).
- The Red Sox have won two of the last four World Series trophies.
But don’t fret just because guys like Steve Francis and JO earned more cash this year that you will in your entire sad, sad existence on this planet.Cause you know what they say:
