Hard to believe: 18 college players will earn more next season than LeBron James
Yes, you read that right: the Philadelphia star will pocket only $3.8 million. There are 18 college players who will earn more than "King James" in the upcoming season.
LeBron James will earn only $3.8 million next season. No fewer than 292 NBA players will earn more than him in 2026/27, but that is not all: it turns out that 18 college players (!) will also earn more than one of the greatest stars of all time and one of the most popular athletes on the planet.
According to The Athletic, this will be the first time since the 2002/03 season that college players earn more than James. At that time, he was still a high school student at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, before being selected first in the 2003 draft and receiving slightly more than four million dollars in his rookie season in Cleveland.
Expected to top the list of earners in college basketball is Thomas Howe from Florida. The forward opted out of the 2026 draft despite being considered a candidate to be selected in the first round, and according to CBS, he could earn more than ten million dollars in the upcoming season — more than double James's salary.
The jump in amounts is due, in part, to the struggle of college programs to retain players who could have been selected in the draft. In fact, teams are forced to compete with NBA rookie contracts to convince talents to stay for another year on campus.
The 18 players who are set to earn at least $3.9 million in the upcoming season in college: Aiden Sherrell (Indiana), David Punch (Texas), Flory Bidunga (Louisville), Jackson Shelstad (Louisville), John Blackwell (Duke), JT Toppin (Texas Tech), Jock Harris (Tennessee), Massamba Diop (Gonzaga), Milan Momcilovic (Kentucky), Mustafa Thiam (Michigan), Nikola Kostic (UCLA), PJ Haggerty (Texas A&M), Samet Yigitoglu (Indiana), Sananda Fro (Marquette), Thomas Howe (Florida), Tunde Yessoufou (St. John's), Tyren Stokes (Kansas), and Zoom Diallo (Kentucky).
In case you were wondering, none of these 18 players had been born yet on June 26, 2003, the day LeBron James was selected first in the NBA draft.
