It is not easy to usurp LeBron James’ number one position in terms of making money in the NBA.

Being an NBA superstar like LeBron James, Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant, basketball is never the biggest source of profit they have. Many opportunities to make money from advertising or profits from outside businesses often bring in huge amounts of money, surpassing the tens of millions of dollars in salary they receive.

Yesterday, the world’s most prestigious economic magazine, Forbes, announced the 10 NBA players who earned the most money within 12 months.

According to Forbes, these top 10 players have pocketed a total of about $540 million in the past year and the leader is none other than the “king”, LeBron James.

This is the 5th consecutive time the superstar from Ohio has become the money-making king in the NBA with an income of $88.7 million. Of which, $53 million came from profits outside the football field.

No one in the NBA can surpass LeBron James in this regard because of so many highly profitable investments and advertising contracts such as Beats, Pepsi, Nike, Uninterrupted… The last person has a higher income than “house”. king” is Kobe Bryant, the Lakers legend who retired 5 years ago.

Standing right behind LeBron is the superstar duo of the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.

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This is the second year in a row, Curry ranked behind LeBron James and ranked second on the rankings of the best earning players. The defender wearing shirt number 30’s total income of $79.5 million includes $42 million coming from off the field.

Kevin Durant also had a successful year when he cooperated with many famous brands and television channels such as Nike, Google, ESPN, YouTube… 60.5 million USD is the amount of money he earned in the past 12 months.

Also according to Forbes, LeBron James, along with Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, are the few players with higher outside income than their NBA salary.

Statistics of the 10 best earning players in the NBA in the past year:

1. LeBron James: $88.7 million

2. Stephen Curry: $79.5 million

3. Kevin Durant: $65 million

4. Russell Westbrook: $53.7 million

5. James Harden: $47.4 million

6. Chris Paul: $43.7 million

7. Giannis Antetokounmpo: $43.2 million

8. Damian Lillard: $41 million

9. Blake Griffin: $39.1 million

10. Paul George: $38.6 million