List of Top Paid European Basketball Players

[damo[23]]

LOL, you completely missed the point.
Point is that marginal players get more money than they would in NBA. You can see from that that bigger names would be paid more than in NBA too.
But don't be too afraid. In EU there is only a few teams, lets say 8, who culd reach ammount of salary NBA teams have.

Hopefully that will rise. There are alot of major cities in Europe with huge sports markets - if smaller teams can look to build themselves up - it could be great.

Thought unfortunatly [being a UK resisident] I dont see England getting a good league any time soon [ours is pretty crappy] since cost of living is soooooo much higher here than the states and even with pay rises probably would see less money than they would out in America with half the contract lol.

[Rasho Brezec]

Who on this list has the potential to be an NBA star? I'd rather have a Travis Outlaw or even Luke Walton than any of these "Euro Superstars"

I'd rather overpay 12 out of 26 players on that list than Luke Walton.

[Typhoon20]

a million US dollars is approximately worth 600K in europe. That's pretty huge, plus taxes might be less harsh in some european leagues so a 20 M contract in the NBA equals like 12 M euro. European teams now can easily pay MLE players.

[jefe]

Any combination of any of those players listed would be the worst team in the NBA every season.

LOL, you completely missed the point.
Point is that marginal players get more money than they would in NBA. You can see from that that bigger names would be paid more than in NBA too.
But don't be too afraid. In EU there is only a few teams, lets say 8, who culd reach ammount of salary NBA teams have.

Or you could say that the list simply shows that European teams have to pay a premium for marginal talent (relative to the NBA talent standard) - and if they wanted top-tier talent (relative to the NBA talent standard) they'd have to pay an exorbinant premium, which is something they apparently can't afford to do at the moment - since only 24 (or so) players on the entire continent are making the NBA's average salary.

[Lakers_4_Life]

Any combination of any of those players listed would be the worst team in the NBA every season.

LOL, you completely missed the point.
Point is that marginal players get more money than they would in NBA. You can see from that that bigger names would be paid more than in NBA too.
But don't be too afraid. In EU there is only a few teams, lets say 8, who culd reach ammount of salary NBA teams have.

Or you could say that the list simply shows that European teams have to pay a premium for marginal talent (relative to the NBA talent standard) - and if they wanted top-tier talent (relative to the NBA talent standard) they'd have to pay an exorbinant premium, which is something they apparently can't afford to do at the moment - since only 24 (or so) players on the entire continent are making the NBA's average salary.

26 are making the average NBA salary. 15 are making more than the average NBA salary and 2 are making more than NBA max contracts. You are underestimating the problem this is going to be for the NBA by a lot.

[jefe]

26 are making the average NBA salary. 15 are making more than the average NBA salary and 2 are making more than NBA max contracts. You are underestimating the problem this is going to be for the NBA by a lot.

Fine, I'll acknowledge the nits that you've picked - 26 players on the entire continent in various leagues are making at or above the average NBA player's salary - and I'll state an equally baseless and unsupportable opinion as fact - you're exaggerating the problem faced by the NBA by a lot.

[Lakers_4_Life]

Add Nenad Krstic to the list of European players making more than the full NBA MLE.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3508955

New Jersey Nets free agent Nenad Krstic signed a two year deal worth $3 million euros per year with Triumph Moscow early Tuesday morning, Krstic's agent, Marc Cornstein, said.

The salary is the equivalent of around $9 million per year in the United States once you factor in the exchange rate and the fact that European clubs pay all the players' taxes.

[Lakers_4_Life]

Add Earl Boykins to the list of players making more than the NBA MLE in Europe. So that's 28 players making equal to the NBA MLE in Europe and 17 players making more than the NBA MLE in Europe.

[Jugoplastika89-90-91]

Current list of the top 30 paid professional basketball players in Europe
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It is easy to copy/paste information from the best site on the internet - Interbasket.net forum aka IBN forum, right?

You should name your source. It would be nice...

[greenbeans]

add Earl Boykins to the list of players who dont know when to hang em up.

[Lakers_4_Life]

Current list of the top 30 paid professional basketball players in Europe
...
...
...

It is easy to copy/paste information from the best site on the internet - Interbasket.net forum aka IBN forum, right?

You should name your source. It would be nice...

I researched all the salaries myself. Feel free to copy and paste my work though.

[Shuttlesworth]

So is 'suspended' a new rank or something? How the hell do you keep posting when it says ur suspended?

[ballerblogger]

Current list of the top 30 paid professional basketball players in Europe

When player salaries are equal per season, the players are ranked based on the length of their contracts.

Buyout amounts listed for Sarunas Jasikevicius and Vassilis Spanoulis are the amounts of money netted by the player in salary from the NBA after their contract releases. They are not an amount of money paid to the NBA team to release them.

Top 30 current salaries (players making above the full NBA MLE currently are in bold print with an asterisk, players making equal to the full NBA MLE are in bold print with no asterisk):

1. Josh Childress* (Olympiacos Piraeus): 4.5 million euros per year (3 years 13.5 million euros)

2. Sarunas Jasikevicius* (Panathinaikos Athens): 3.73 million euros per year (3 years 11.2 million euros) (3 years 10.5 million euros salary, plus 700K euros buyout salary)

3. Theodoros Papaloukas* (Olympiacos Piraeus). 3.5 million euros per year (3 years 10.5 million euros)

4. Bostjan Nachbar* (Dynamo Moscow): 3 million euros per year (3 years 9 million euros)

5. Jorge Garbajosa* (Khimki): 3.0 million euros per year (2 years 6 million euros)

5. Nenad Krtsic* (Triumph): 3.0 million euros per year (2 years 6 million euros)

7. Carlos Delfino* (Khimki): 2.833 million euros per year (3 years 8.5 million euros)

8. Matjaz Smodis* (CSKA Moscow): 2.5 million euros per year (3 years 7.5 million euros)

9. Ramunas Siskauskas* (CSKA Moscow): 2.5 million euros per year (2 years 5 million euros)

10. Juan Carlos Navarro* (Barcelona): 2.4 million euros per year (5 years 12 million euros)

11. Fran Vazquez* (Barcelona): 2.333 million euros per year (3 years 7 million euros)

12. Arvydas Macijauskas* (Olympiacos Piraeus): 2.25 million euros per year (4 years 9 million euros)

13. Nikola Vujcic* (Olympiacos Piraeus). 2.25 million euros per year (2 years 4.5 million euros)

13. Lynn Greer* (Olympiacos Piraeus): 2.25 million euros per year (2 years 4.5 million euros)

15. Nikos Zisis* (CSKA Moscow): 2.2 million euros per year (3 years 6.6 million euros)

16. Earl Boykins* (Virtus Bologna): 2.2 million euros per year (1 year 2.2 million euros)

17. Vassilis Spanoulis* (Panathinaikos Athens) 2.076 million euros per year (3 years 6.230 million euros) (3 years 5.5 million euros salary, plus 730K euros buyout salary)

18. Felipe Reyes (Real Madrid): 2.0 million euros per year (5 years 10 million euros)

19. Viktor Khryapa (CSKA Moscow): 2.0 million euros per year (4.5 years 9 million euros)

20. David Andersen (Barcelona): 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. Darjus Lavrinovic (Dynamo Moscow) 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. Aleksey Savrasenko (CSKA Moscow) 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. Lazaros Papadopoulos (Real Madrid): 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. Zoran Planinic (CSKA Moscow): 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. Sergei Monia (Dynamo Moscow): 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. Tiago Splitter (TAU Vitoria): 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. Ersan İlyasova (Barcelona): 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

20. John Robert Holden (CSKA Moscow): 2.0 million euros per year (3 years 6 million euros)

29. Dimitris Diamantidis (Panathinaikos Athens): 1.9 million euros per year (3 years 5.7 million euros)

30. Mike Batiste (Panathinaikos Athens): 1.833 million euros per year (3 years 5.5 million euros)



It took a hell of a long time to track all of this down and to get actual amounts in some cases because of conflicting reports and also to pinpoint some issues like contract buyouts and how everything works. These are the final figures though once these guys signed contracts, which is not to be confused with some sources that list different figures, but were reporting negotiations or offers, not the actual signed amounts.

Since there is a lot of debate about this topic right now I just wanted to post this for everyone's information. Keep in mind the euro is worth about 1.6 US dollars currently and also keep in mind that these amounts are NET contracts, not gross amounts listed like NBA contracts are listed in gross amounts. A 2 million euros contract listed here is equal to the full NBA MLE. Because the exchange rate is about 1.6 dollars = 1 euro and because of the difference between net and gross salaries. Because NBA contracts are gross and these are net.

The average tax rate for state and federal taxes across all the NBA cities came to 42% tax rate for NBA player salaries. This is the federal tax bracket of the average NBA salary and the average state tax across all NBA cities. Thus, a full NBA MLE contract of about $5.5 million gross salary is about the same as a 2.0 million euros net salary.

Keep in mind many people here keep arguing that players would still pay taxes in Europe. These salaries in Europe are the after tax amount. That is all it means. The net salary. It's just the NBA reports their salaries as gross. So yes, even though a guy like Lynn Greer still has to pay US federal taxes out of his Euro salary, you do NOT deduct taxes from the amount listed here because this is his AFTER TAX salary that is listed in Europe.

28 players in Europe are currently making equal to the full NBA MLE and 17 players in Europe are currently making MORE than the full NBA MLE.

So we have these European players making equal to the full NBA MLE:

Felipe Reyes
Viktor Khryapa
David Andersen
Aleksey Savrasenko
Lazaros Papadopoulos
Zoran Planinic
Sergei Monia
Tiago Splitter
Ersan İlyasova
Darjus Lavrinovic
JR Holden

And we have these European players making more than the full NBA MLE:

Josh Childress
Sarunas Jasikevicius
Theodoros Papaloukas
Bostjan Nachbar
Jorge Garbajosa
Nenad Krstic
Carlos Delfino
Matjaz Smodis
Ramunas Siskauskas
Juan Carlos Navarro
Fran Vazquez
Arvydas Macijauskas
Nikola Vujcic
Lynn Greer
Nikos Zisis
Earl Boykins
Vassilis Spanoulis


OK, so now that we have some better grasp of the salary situation, let's debate how we all think this will affect the NBA.

You should cite your sources.

[ballerblogger]

I would like to cite your list in a blog, but I need to be confident that it's accurate.

So where did you acquire this information?

[Shuttlesworth]

Current list of the top 30 paid professional basketball players in Europe
...
...
...

It is easy to copy/paste information from the best site on the internet - Interbasket.net forum aka IBN forum, right?

You should name your source. It would be nice...

I researched all the salaries myself. Feel free to copy and paste my work though.

You should cite your sources.

LOL Owned

[Lakers_4_Life]

I would like to cite your list in a blog, but I need to be confident that it's accurate.

So where did you acquire this information?

From nowhere. I had to search tediously for each one. And it's hard because so many different salaries come up because if some guy was offered or rumored a different amount than he signed for people use it as a "source".

You can post this to any blog you want but it was done through my own sourcing. In other words, I did exactly what a news reporter would do. Actually some of the teams and agents will give information. I have a degree in journalism and used to work as a journalist in Europe so it's not that hard to gather up such a list, just very time consuming.

I should probably add that Sarunas Jasikevicius has a 2 year deal and the third year is an option for both the team and him so I edited that into the original post.

[Jase]

Nice research. You're spot on with what Jasikevicius is making.