List of Top Paid European Basketball Players

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List of Top Paid European Basketball Players 

Post#1 » by Lakers_4_Life » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:08 pm

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) - third year is an option year

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 Ä°lyasova (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 Ä°lyasova
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.
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Re: Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#2 » by asdfgh » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:21 pm

That's an interesting list mostly because there are only 8 teams in 3 countries. You can add Childress to the list now.

Panathinaikos 4
Olympiacos 4
Dynamo Moscow 2
Kminski 1
CSKA Moscow 7
Barcelona 4
Real Madrid 2
Tau 1
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#3 » by SA37 » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:39 pm

The thing is, assuming this list is correct, you're talking about the highest paid player making what equates to about a 3-year, $28 million deal in the NBA.

If Childress just got what asdfgh is saying he got -- a 3-year, 13.2€ million deal -- he becomes the highest paid player at the equivalent of about 3-years, $35 million.

So, while that is a good salary that could bring over a lot of good talent from the NBA, the top guys are still going to make the equivalent or, more likely, able to make more.

I think there can be a lot of mid-level talent tempted by European teams' money, but the top guys are staying.

What remains to be seen is how high European teams would be willing to go. I would be interested to see what a guy like Ben Gordon, Andre Iguodala, Emeka Okafor, or Luol Deng could get offered from a European team. Could or would a European team make a truly competitive offer to an elite player?

Say LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire, and Chris Bosh all become free agents in '10 and the exchange rate is still roughly the same. Would a European team step in and offer these guys something like a 5-year, 50€ million deal (the equivalent being a 5-year, $133 million in the NBA)?
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Re: Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#4 » by Lakers_4_Life » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:42 pm

asdfgh wrote:That's an interesting list mostly because there are only 8 teams in 3 countries. You can add Childress to the list now.

Panathinaikos 4
Olympiacos 4
Dynamo Moscow 2
Kminski 1
CSKA Moscow 7
Barcelona 4
Real Madrid 2
Tau 1



Yeah, it looks like the real danger that would be posed to the NBA would be if teams like Khimki, Dynamo, CSKA in Russia, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos in Greece, and then the big Spanish clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona formed a 3 nation Euro super league.

That could go 7 teams right there. Just one more team from one of the countries could form a small 8 man league that could compete for NBA players I think. Probably make the Euroleague a memory also. Maybe just get one more super rich owner buy a team like Aris Thessaloniki and they would be good to go. Maybe something like that is how this will start. Then maybe a league like that and the NBA could make some kind of agreement on a world championship.
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#5 » by panacea » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:45 pm

All this tells me is that Euro teams are willing to overpay for marginal NBA talent.
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#6 » by wizkid27 » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:46 pm

Thanks for all of the leg work on that! I think it's definitely interesting to see... and it will be very interesting to see how this affects the NBA. It seems like this could really turn into a new "hot" option. If you're a restricted FA and can't get away from your team, don't have another team sign an offer sheet... go to a different league. It will really be an adjustment for a league that has always designed its salary, trading, drafting, etc. rules based on the fact that everyone wants to play in the "best league".
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#7 » by Lakers_4_Life » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:49 pm

SA37 wrote:The thing is, assuming this list is correct, you're talking about the highest paid player making what equates to about a 3-year, $28 million deal in the NBA.

If Childress just got what asdfgh is saying he got -- a 3-year, 13.2€ million deal -- he becomes the highest paid player at the equivalent of about 3-years, $35 million.

So, while that is a good salary that could bring over a lot of good talent from the NBA, the top guys are still going to make the equivalent or, more likely, able to make more.

I think there can be a lot of mid-level talent tempted by European teams' money, but the top guys are staying.

What remains to be seen is how high European teams would be willing to go. I would be interested to see what a guy like Ben Gordon, Andre Iguodala, Emeka Okafor, or Luol Deng could get offered from a European team. Could or would a European team make a truly competitive offer to an elite player?

Say LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire, and Chris Bosh all become free agents in '10 and the exchange rate is still roughly the same. Would a European team step in and offer these guys something like a 5-year, 50€ million deal (the equivalent being a 5-year, $133 million in the NBA)?



Well Panathinaikos gave Dominique what is equal to a $17 million contract today for 1 year back in 1996. It was always said they wanted him to sign for a lot of years (5 years) but he would only sign for one. So it's not without precedence at least for Panathinaikos that they might offer some huge contract to the right NBA player.

I can't think of any other Euro teams that gave out such enormous contracts in the past as you are talking about to attract the types of NBA players you mention. But the thing is, we have obviously entered into a new era of salaries in European basketball. Just a couple years ago if someone would have said that what has happened this off season was actually going to happen, they would have even been laughed out of a European basketball forum.

It's like I've said in other threads teams like Panathinaikos and Olympiacos has 2-3 million euro budgets just 4 years or so ago. Now they are spending that on single players.
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#8 » by greenbeans » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:52 pm

the past 3 days theres been more overreaction and pie in the sky statements on here than ive ever seen. calm down people
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#9 » by ropjhk » Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:58 pm

What happened to Delfino's 30 million dollar salary?
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#10 » by SA37 » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:06 pm

Lakers_4_Life wrote:Well Panathinaikos gave Dominique what is equal to a $17 million contract today for 1 year back in 1996. It was always said they wanted him to sign for a lot of years (5 years) but he would only sign for one. So it's not without precedence at least for Panathinaikos that they might offer some huge contract to the right NBA player.

I can't think of any other Euro teams that gave out such enormous contracts in the past as you are talking about to attract the types of NBA players you mention. But the thing is, we have obviously entered into a new era of salaries in European basketball. Just a couple years ago if someone would have said that what has happened this off season was actually going to happen, they would have even been laughed out of a European basketball forum.

It's like I've said in other threads teams like Panathinaikos and Olympiacos has 2-3 million euro budgets just 4 years or so ago. Now they are spending that on single players.


Well, that is why I was kind of "thinking out loud" at what the possibilities might be down the road.

I know these clubs are incredibly rich, which is why you can see silly articles like Real Madrid reportedly being willing to throw 100€ million for Ronaldo and then pay him stupid amounts of money (reportedly Madrid were willing to offer Ronaldo a 5-year, 75€ million deal).

The thing is, since basketball doesn't have the popularity or generate the revenue that football does, you have to wonder if it makes sense to drop the kind of money it would take to get one of those guys over here, particularly in their prime.

I am still convinced Europe's chances of pulling a Wade or LeBron or Amare over here in their prime is very, very slim. These guys don't see the European League as being anywhere near as prestigious as the NBA title. But, money talks, and if a team offered LeBron or Wade or whatever star name you want to throw out there an obscene contract, it would be hard to say no, especially with all the perks that come with playing there.

Given the current exchange rate, how hard would it be to walk away from a 5-year, 55€ million deal (5-year, $133 million) while having a house and car provided for you?

That's tough to say no to.
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#11 » by Downtown » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:10 pm

Panacea, by saying that Euro teams are willing to overpay for marginal talent does that mean that they are now acting like the NBA has for years?
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#12 » by Malinhion » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:32 pm

Wow, awesome work. Finally someone willing to put the effort into finding the information, doing the right math, and presenting it in a coherent fashion.

I haven't seen this kind of effort or objectivness in any of the euroleague threads thus far.
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#13 » by HarlemHeat37 » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:35 pm

damn, that's a mediocre list of players..
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#14 » by greenbeans » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:39 pm

Euro Ball: where average happens!!
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#15 » by 10scott10 » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:42 pm

should i make a list of NBA players making above the MLE.

i mean these are supposed to the best of the best of europe.

the kobe's and lebron's and duncan's, and the most they are making 17 million total, so i guess that Josh Childress might be the highest payed player in europe.




Hell i mean KG makes that in a signle year
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#16 » by dingclancy » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:48 pm

I may not care but the fact that the NBA is not holding the "best of the best" talent - that loses a lot of luster for the game.
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#17 » by Malinhion » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:51 pm

dingclancy wrote:I may not care but the fact that the NBA is not holding the "best of the best" talent - that loses a lot of luster for the game.


What are you talking about? If Josh Childress was "the best of the best," why was he riding the Pine in Atlanta, of all places?
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#18 » by dingclancy » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:55 pm

My point is he is a rotational player that belongs in the NBA. So he should play in the NBA - In the spirit of the greatest basketball competition in the world. The NBA Should hold the top 500+ players in the world.

It is upsetting for the Hawks to lose a talent like him. It is more upsetting for the league to lose Childress for another league. In a 15-man roster every players counts that is why teams pay them big bucks.
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#19 » by HarlemHeat37 » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:14 pm

nobody gives a **** about Josh Childress, or other players that are 6th-8th men on average teams..they're repleceable through the draft..

the NBA's popularity comes from the top 50-80 players..the guys everybody recognizes..
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Re: List Of Euro Players Making At Or Above NBA MLE 

Post#20 » by jefe » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:28 pm

22 players in Europe are currently making equal to the full NBA MLE and 13 players in Europe are currently making MORE than the full NBA MLE.


Wow, when you look at those underwhelming numbers (only 22 players on the entire continent make the average NBA salary) and the underwhelming talent on that list (particularly the players that have spent time in the NBA), I think together they should assuage the alarmist posts/fears connected to the Childress signing.

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