30 richest players in the NBA
By John Buhler
Tony Parker
Point Guard, San Antonio Spurs
Tony Parker has spent his entire 16-year NBA career with the San Antonio Spurs organization. He has had multiple contracts with the Spurs, but never really considered leaving San Antonio in free agency. As a result, he has made a whopping $145,390,310 in NBA salary.
Parker was drafted No. 28 overall by the Spurs in the 2001 NBA Draft out of France. He would sign a three-year deal worth $2.4 million as a rookie in 2001. San Antonio would obviously exercise its team option on Parker for 2004-05, costing the Spurs only $1.54 million.
In November 2004, Parker would agree to his rookie extension with San Antonio. It would be six years for $66 million. Parker would play four of those six years under that pay grade before getting a raise in 2008. He would agree to a four-year veteran extension worth $50 million.
It was the right call to amp up Parker’s pay, as he was in his prime as a professional around that time. He would play out all six years of that contract before inking his third big extension with the Spurs in summer 2014.
Parker and the Spurs would sign off on a three-year, $43.3 million extension that would run through 2017-18. Should Parker play through that final third year of the contract, he would stand to make roughly $160,843,436 of salary before hitting free agency in summer 2018.
While he is past his prime as a starting point guard, Parker has maybe one more multi-year deal with the Spurs after his current contract expires. He’s 34 and if he plays until he’s 38 or so, Parker will have made close to $200 million of NBA salary. For a future Hall of Famer, he’s been worth it.