NBA Salaries: The Highest Paid College Alums, Year After Year

Kentucky alumni held the No. 1 position as the highest-paid in the NBA in 2014 and are unlikely to relinquish it anytime soon. When the Wildcats replaced the Huskies in first place, they earned a combined $107 million. Last year, their revenues rose to $398 million, about 8 percent of the NBA’s total payroll expenses.

Long gone are the days when North Carolina reigned supreme in the salary rankings. Tar Heel alumni have not ranked in the Top 8 since the 2019-2020 season.

Below are the year-by-year rankings since 1990-91, the earliest date for which we have data. (The highest-paid player for each college is in parentheses.)