Kevin Durant

Players are making more than ever on and off the court, and basketball's booming business means their pay should continue rising.

The 33-year-old forward [has also said](https://youtu.be/rThwIazE4zU) he is preparing to release a country album. Last year, Butler signed a three-year, $146.4 million extension with a player option for 2025-26, and he immediately justified the Heat’s faith in him, leading Miami on a postseason run that fell 5 points short of the NBA finals. [allowed Philadelphia to be active](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryantoporek/2022/07/20/james-hardens-contractual-sacrifice-was-the-key-to-the-sixers-offseason/) in the off-season, with the additions of De’Anthony Melton, P.J. After missing three months last season with an elbow injury, George is back to lead the Clippers alongside Kawhi Leonard, who is himself returning from a knee injury that cost him the entire 2021-22 season. The new deal will pay him $14.4 million less in 2022-23 than he was due to make with his option but Thompson, who got back on the court with the Warriors in January after missing two seasons with injuries, has been sitting on the sidelines during the preseason out of an abundance of caution as Golden State looks to keep him healthy. He also recently opened a shop, AntetokounBros, with his four brothers at the airport in his native Athens. [about $725 million](https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2021/10/14/lebron-james-scores-on-725-million-springhill-deal-with-nike-redbird-and-fenway-sports-group/) in a deal last year. But much of the 37-year-old Lakers forward’s work off the court, as an investor and entrepreneur, doesn’t show up in Forbes’ earnings estimates, including the SpringHill Company, the entertainment development and production business he cofounded that was valued at The NBA currently gets an average of $2.66 billion a year from its national media contracts with ABC, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting, and experts believe its next round of deals, beginning with the 2025-26 season, That has given teams more money to spend and pushed up the value of the league’s max salaries, including the so-called super-max extensions that were introduced in 2017 for veteran players who have met certain criteria, like winning MVP or the Defensive Player of the Year Award. Even soccer can’t compare, with the world’s ten highest-paid players totaling [$208 million](https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2022/10/07/the-worlds-highest-paid-soccer-players-2022-kylian-mbapp-claims-no-1-while-erling-haaland-debuts/) off the field, according to Forbes estimates.