Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Team salary expenses: 9.76 percent more than league average
Salary expenses in championship season: 18.58 percent more than league average
With a player of LeBron James’ all-time ilk on the roster, it shouldn’t come as a shock that his teams have so often spent so heavily on player salaries considering James ranks No. 1 all-time not just in points, but also in all-time salary earned.
During James’ first four seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team never ranked higher than 17th in salary expenses, per our research, then spent way more once James’ max extension kicked in, with the team ranking fourth, third and fifth in player salaries before the four-time league MVP took his talents to South Beach.
Even so, it was the Cavs team that ranked 17th in player salaries in 2006-07 that reached the Finals out of that group, as James was making $5.8 million that year while making 2nd Team All-NBA.
That team had Larry Hughes as its highest-paid player ($13.4 million, No. 26 in the NBA), followed by Zydrunas Ilgauskas ($9.4 million), Drew Gooden ($6.7 million) and Eric Snow ($6.1 million) all earning more money than James.
Quite a roster James led the Finals there.
It was different once James returned to Cleveland for his second stint there, with the Cavaliers actually ranking first in salary expenses three separate times from 2015-16 to 2017-18, a stretch that saw them win one championship and reach two other Finals, paying the likes of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love what they deserved, a much stronger roster of players closer to James’ greatness.
Money well-spent.
So far with the Lakers, James’ current team has yet to rank higher than fourth in player salary.
