Richard Hamilton isn’t making any money from professional basketball right now, and that’s quite a change from last season. The three-time All-Star made more than $11MM combined during 2012/13 from his contract with the Bulls and through his buyout agreement with the Pistons, who chipped in more than $6MM of his total take. Corey Maggette raked in more than $10.9MM playing for the Pistons last season, but the 33-year-old failed in his bid to make the Spurs on a minimum-salary contract. It appears Maggette will retire now, meaning he’d go from earning an eight-figure salary to not receiving a dime from pro basketball in the space of one year.
Hamilton, Maggette and Stephen Jackson all made more than $10MM last season playing the NBA, and none of them are signed for this season. Of course, some players who’ve been waived via the amnesty clause saw even larger streams of income dry up this summer once their old contracts finally lapsed, but the focus here is on players who still remained on NBA rosters last season.
There are nine players who find themselves on the shelf this year after making more than $5MM playing in the NBA last season. Hedo Turkoglu figures to join them soon, once the Magic figure out what they’re going to do with his $12MM expiring contract. The deal is only guaranteed for $6MM, but the Magic want to see what they can get on the trade market for Turkoglu rather than release him right away, even though the team has told him to stay home. His $11,815,850 salary last season would put him atop this list, which includes every unsigned player who made more than $5MM while on an NBA roster last season.
- Richard Hamilton, Pistons/Bulls ($11,069,767 — $6,069,767 from Pistons and $5MM from Bulls)
- Corey Maggette, Pistons ($10,924,138)
- Stephen Jackson, Spurs ($10,059,750)
- Lamar Odom, Clippers ($8.2MM)
- Tyrus Thomas, Bobcats ($8MM)
- DeSagana Diop, Bobcats ($7,372,200)
- Drew Gooden, Bucks ($6,687,400)
- Luke Walton, Cavaliers ($6,091,363)
- Brandon Roy, Timberwolves ($5.1MM)
Storyteller’s Contracts was used in the creation of this post.