It's no secret that the NBA is the place to be for athletes looking to get paid. Jaylen Brown received headlines around the world after signing a contract that could be worth over $300 million dollars in total, but he's not the only one reaping the benefits of the NBA's ballooning salaries.
While some other leagues may boast top-end salaries as high or higher than the NBA's biggest stars, for the journeyman, NBA salaries are a cut above the rest.
Don't believe me? Well, according to contract data from Spotrac, the average NBA salary for the 2023-24 season was just shy of eight figures at a cool $9.7 million dollars for the season, the highest of any team sport in the world (beating out Indian Premier League [cricket!], Major League Baseball, and English Premier League, according to Statista).
The median contract for the 2023-24 season was lower, at $4.6 million, but still not a bad year's work for most people.
The NBA just negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement, and with new TV deals expected to dramatically increase revenue and the salary cap, contracts will only be getting bigger. There is a fear that the new CBA could squeeze the NBA's middle class, leading to a more barbell-shaped distribution of salaries ("stars and scrubs," in other words), but that still remains to be seen.
What is the average and median NBA salary for 2023-24 by position?
We do see some interesting splits when we look at average and median salaries by position:
PG: $11.8M average salary, $5.8M median salary
SG: $8.9M average salary, $4.0 median salary
SF: $8.5M average salary, $3.5 median salary
PF: $9.9M average salary, $5.6M median salary
C: $9.4M average salary, $4.2M median salary
Point guard is clearly the most highly valued position by median and average salary, while the small forward has become the least valued.
As a caveat, note that these are all base salaries. Certain players have incentives that could push their final pay even higher, but the incentives are usually relatively small.