10 Highest Paid NBA Players by Salaries

#5 Blake Griffin - $34.23 million

Detroit Pistons v Charlotte Hornets

Griffin was pitched a 5-year, $171 million contract by Jerry West with the promise of seeing his jersey hung up on the rafters of the Staples Center as a Clipper, only for the wily old man to flip him for Tobias Harris, Boban and Avery Bradley when the going got tough and Griffin missed time with injury.

Nevertheless, his contract should be scant consolation for the change in lifestyle in moving from LA to Detroit, and he's playing arguably the best basketball of his life for the Pistons today. If All-Star voting were to end today, it'd be hard to keep Griffin off the Eastern Conference starting 5. Worth every penny of his contract.