Larry Bird is just as shocked as anyone to see the money that players earn in today’s NBA, particularly those on supermax deals such as Jayson Tatum’s five-year, $315 million contract with the Boston Celtics, the highest in league history.
Bird himself spent his legendary career with the Celtics, winning three NBA championships and three MVP awards – going down as one of the greatest players of all-time.
But the money that he had been paid in his prime does not even come close to what players receiving in the league today, despite the league’s TV ratings rapidly declining year-on-year.
The NBA had seen huge growth through the 1980s when Bird and Magic Johnson’s rivalry started, with Michael Jordan taking it to another level when he began to dominate in the 1990s – followed by the likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, seeing basketball become a beloved sport globally.
When Bird had entered the league in 1979 he signed the biggest deal in NBA history with a five-year, $3.25 million deal – a deal that made fellow players in the league jealous.
Bird told ESPN: “I’d be lying if I told you I thought it would get to this point. I never thought that. I’m happy it has. That means the league’s doing well, the owners are doing well, the players are doing well. That’s what it was all about. But you got to remember, when I came into the league, the guys before me were bitchin’ about how much money I made. So it just goes down the line, so that’s how it works.”
In 2024, players at the bottom of the roster make considerably more than Bird did in his prime years. The first-overall pick of the recent NBA draft, Zacharie Risacher, signed an incredible four-year, $57.2 million contract as a rookie – considerably more than Philadelphia Eagles superstar and NFL MVP candidate Saquon Barkley, for example.
The NBA is having big issues in the league, with players being paid bloated contracts while TV ratings fall, dropping 42% over the last two years.
The aforementioned Johnson believes he and Bird might have something to do with that. He said: “They dont hate each other. I hated Larry [Bird] and every Celtics. I really dont like you (Johnson pointed at Pierce]. But [now] you my little brother. Now I love you because youre out of that green and white. The Celtics and Lakers hated each other. It made for great TV and people tuning in… now everybodys shaking each others hand. Everybody likes each other, wont go at each other really hard.”
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