Highest paid NBA players of the last 10 years

2016-17: LeBron James

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James's 2016-17 salary: $30.96 million

Unquestionably the best player of the 2010s, LeBron James has been the torchbearer of basketball excellence for a time period long enough that the majority of basketball fans active online today have not experienced a world in which James was not at the apex of the basketball evolution tree. Indeed, James looks the part, talks the part and boy has he walked the walk over the course of his legendary career!

After leading Cleveland to its first major sports trophy in 52 years, James signed a 3-year deal with the Cavs that included a player option which he declined in the summer of 2018 for nearly $100 million in total, paying him about $31 million through the course of the 2016-17 NBA season - a time when he still had a vertical leap of 40+ inches.