Kevin Durant and LeBron James have battled for almost two decades now as two of the best players the game has ever seen.
James outweighs Durant in almost every category, but with Durant’s latest contract news revealed by ESPN’s Shams Charania, he finally beat out LeBron as the NBA’s all-time highest earner.
The Houston Rockets and Durant agreed on a two-year, $90 million extension, including a player option in the second year.
This was enough to bring his projected career earnings to $591,313,851, the most any player has ever made.
Durant, who is 37, got the most years allowed for a player his age, and beats out James by around $10 million, who sits at $581,322,455 made in his career.
Although Durant is currently the leader of this list, he likely won’t hold this position for very long, according to Joseph Zucker of Bleacher Report.
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“James is heading for free agency next summer. Assuming he extends his career for another year — be it with the Los Angeles Lakers or another team — his earnings would almost certainly eclipse $600 million,” Zucker said Sunday.
“The 21-time All-Star would have to accept a massive pay cut relative to his current salary ($52.6 million) in order not to overtake Durant. And leaving a lot of money on the table isn’t something James has done to this point.”
An impressive feature nonetheless for Durant, considering he was drafted four years after James in 2007.
What is most impressive about this statistic is that players like Devin Booker and Jayson Tatum are already in the top ten projected highest earners of all time.
Durant having about a decade worth of experience over these guys is crazy, but it just goes to show that the salaries in the NBA are changing dramatically.
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