30 richest players in the NBA
By John Buhler
Paul Pierce
Small Forward, Los Angeles Clippers
The Truth is, well, we already know what the truth is. Small forward Paul Pierce will go down as one of the greatest players in Boston Celtics franchise history. While he has bounced around in recent years, Pierce has made a ton of cash in his NBA career, earning $194,035,952.
Pierce is in his 19th and final NBA season out of Kansas. He went No. 10 overall to the Celtics in the 1998 NBA Draft. Pierce would sign a four-year rookie deal worth $6.3 million in the strike-shortened 1998-98 NBA season. The Celtics would wisely exercise their team option on Pierce for the 2001-02 NBA season, costing them $2.05 million.
Pierce would sign his first big deal in the NBA with the Celtics, inking a six-year rookie extension worth $79 million in August 2001. In July 2006, Pierce would sign a three-year, $59 million veteran extension with the Celtics.
Pierce would terminate his deal with the Celtics early in June 2010. A month later, Pierce would sign a new contract with the Celtics, a four-year $61 million deal. While many thought that Pierce would spend his entire NBA career in Boston, that proved not to be the case, as he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in summer 2013.
He would only spend the 2013-14 NBA season in Brooklyn. Pierce would enter unrestricted free agency in summer 2014, ultimately signing a two-year deal with the Washington Wizards for $10.85 million with a player option for 2015-16. He would only spend a season in Washington, signing a three-year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers worth $10.58 millions.
His contract is only guaranteed through this season. While he said he won’t play next year to collect the last $3.68 million of his Clippers contract, maybe Pierce has had enough basketball for one lifetime?