Stephen Curry's $200 Million Year Is Really a Story About Sneakers

Close-up of an orange basketball rim and worn white net against a clear backboard

The headline writes itself: Stephen Curry is the first active NBA player projected to earn more than $200 million in 12 months. Forbes puts his total at $203.6 million. But if you look at how that number breaks down, the court is the smaller part of the story.

Curry's salary this season is $62.6 million, itself a record, since he is the first player past $60 million in on-court pay. The other $141 million is projected to come from endorsements and business. That is a huge jump from the $100 million off-court record he set just a season earlier.

The Li-Ning bet

The big change is his split from Under Armour last fall and a new deal with Chinese brand Li-Ning in June, reportedly worth $400 million over ten years, with a signature shoe due early next year. To me this is the real headline. A player in his late thirties signing one of the richest shoe deals ever tells you how much global brands value his name, not just his jump shot. He also works with Chase, Rakuten and Glaukos.

LeBron shows the same shift from another angle

LeBron James is the perfect contrast. He signed with Philadelphia for the veteran's minimum of $3.9 million, less than his rookie salary, yet Forbes estimates he will make $90 million off the court from partners like Hennessy and Louis Vuitton, plus podcasts, books and a golf YouTube channel. His salary barely matters to his income now. He still ranks fourth.

The league-wide picture

The top ten are expected to earn $958 million combined this season, 6% above last year and more than double the total from a decade ago. Of that, $469 million comes from off-court deals. Kevin Durant at $104.9 million and Giannis Antetokounmpo at $103.5 million round out the top three, both with sizeable business portfolios of their own.

What I take from it

NBA salaries keep rising, but the fastest growth is in what stars earn as brands. Only a handful of athletes have ever cleared $200 million in a year, among them Floyd Mayweather, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jon Rahm. Curry getting there in his late thirties, mostly through deals off the floor, says the modern sports fortune is built on reputation that outlasts the playing years.

See the full top ten with salary and endorsement splits in Global Celebrity Meter's list of the highest-paid NBA players of 2026.

Photo: Hami Durgut / Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/33769557/)

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