On October 22, Beijing time, Forbes announced the top 10 NBA player income in 2024, and James earned a total of $128.7 million, ranking first in the league for the 11th consecutive year. Curry and Durant are second and third, respectively, and the Suns' Big Three are all in the top 10. The specific rankings and amounts are as follows-

1. James (128.7 million), 2. Curry (105.8 million), 3. Durant (99.9 million), 4. Antetokounmpo (93.8 million), 5. Lillard (64.8 million), 6. Embiid (61.4 million), 7. Butler (58.8 million), 8. Booker (58.2 million), 9. Doncic (58 million), 10. Beal (57.7 million)

James is the NBA's highest-paid player for the 11th year in a row, with a salary of $48.7 million for the 2024-25 season, plus about $80 million from endorsements, licensing, memorabilia and other commercial activities. His total income (before taxes and agent fees) of $128.7 million is the highest in the 15-year history of Forbes' NBA annual earnings rankings, surpassing James' $124.5 million in the 2022-23 season.

According to Forbes estimates, when James' $64.6 million gross in the 2014-15 season began to become the king of basketball's earners, the NBA's top 10 highest-paid players earned $368 million. The total earnings of these 10 players this year are more than double that number, reaching $787 million, also breaking the record of $751 million in 2022.

The new figure includes about $293 million in off-court revenue, and in addition to James, Curry of the Warriors ($50 million), Durant of the Suns ($50 million), and Antetokounmpo ($45 million) of the Bucks are also quite high.

However, the real reason behind the soaring salaries of NBA players is on the court. The new collective bargaining agreement ensures that players collectively receive about 50 percent of basketball-related revenue, while the NBA's soaring revenues — about $13 billion last season — continue to give general managers more money to spend. In his first year as the highest-paid player in the NBA, James earned $20.6 million; According to Spotrac, 82 players will be paid more than that figure this season.

Curry became the first player to reach a $50 million salary for the 2023-24 season, the salary cap has risen to $140.6 million this season, and the luxury tax threshold is $170.8 million — an increase of more than 122% from a decade ago — and Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Beal of the Phoenix Suns are now joining the ranks of 50 million annual salaries.

Meanwhile, the NBA signed a new national media rights deal in July, which reportedly has a total value of $76 billion over 11 years, more than two and a half times the league's revenue (on an annual average). This would raise the wage cap by another 10% over the next few years – the largest annual increase allowed by the current collective bargaining agreement.

So, with Curry on track to break basketball's $60 million annual salary cap in 2026-27 and the Celtics' Tatum set to break the $70 million salary cap in 2029-30, the NBA will soon have more record-breaking days.