The first place in history is 582 million! How many contracts did James sign in his 22-year career? It is expected to hit another high in the future

As the oldest player in active service, James' performance this season is still incredible. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1 steal in the regular season. With his help, the Lakers achieved another 50+ wins after five years. In the end, he was selected into the All-A second team, which fully demonstrates that he still has the strength of about the top ten in the league. Considering that he is 40 years old, such a case is obviously the only one in NBA history.

Because James is in a good state now, he has many choices during the offseason. If he still wants to stay with the Lakers, he can either choose to execute a contract of $52.62 million next season, or he can also jump out of the contract to sign a new contract with the Lakers. Judging from James' status, status and business value, the Lakers are likely to meet any of his requirements. Therefore, it depends on what he thinks personally. If he still wants to win another championship before retiring, he can even choose to cut his salary and sign a 1+1 contract with the second year player option. This will increase the team's room for strengthening, and if this is the case, James' total salary in his career will set a new record.

Currently, James' total salary in his career is $582 million, which can rank first in NBA history. So how many contracts have he signed in total to earn so much US dollars in the past 22 years of his career? Let’s review it together next!

Rookie Contract: 18.79 million (Cavs)

In high school, James became a rising star in the entire American sports circle. With his proud talent, he quickly led his entire team to play well. At this time, various media also rushed to report on his game, which made him more and more famous. When it was in the third year and the fourth year of high school, James's team could no longer accommodate the fans who came to watch James' games at home. For this reason, the team could only rent the venue of the university team. Not only ordinary fans wanted to watch James' games, but also many NBA stars such as Iverson and O'Neal also visited the scene in person.

After participating in two McDonald's All-Star Games, James automatically lost the qualification to enter the NCAA, so directly challenging the NBA became the most suitable choice at this time. At the same time, James' commercial value is becoming more and more exaggerated. Before he officially entered the league, he signed a contract worth $90 million with Nike. You should know that even All-Star player Kobe did not receive such treatment at that time.

After James became the No. 1 pick in 2003 without any suspense, he signed this rookie contract with the Cavaliers. James, who entered the league, did not adapt at all. He averaged 20+5+5 per game in the rookie season. At this time, everyone became more convinced that his future was limitless. In his third season of his career, James has averaged 31.4 points, 7 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game in the regular season, and he was selected for the All-A-Team for the first time.

First contract: 60 million in 4 years (Cavs)

After being selected for the Best Team in 2006, James was able to sign the maximum salary of 60 million in 4 years, and later he and the Cavaliers made great progress. In the first season after the contract renewal, James led the Cavaliers to the Eastern Conference championship, which was also the first time this team has reached the finals in his team's history. Then in the 2007-2008 season, James averaged 30 points, 7.9 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. Unfortunately, they lost to the Celtics in the playoffs in seven tiebreaks this year.

In the next two seasons, James led the Cavaliers to the league's first regular season record every year. During this period, he also won the MVP for two consecutive years with his outstanding personal performance. However, because he never broke through the Eastern Conference again, James gradually lost confidence in winning the Cavaliers' championship. Garnett's words "Don't let loyalty hurt you" completely pointed out his direction. So in 2010, James made the most important decision in his career.

Second contract: 110 million (Heat)

This offseason James chose to join the Heat, but before leaving, he helped the Cavaliers stop the loss. In the end, he also came to Miami by signing first and then changing. After joining the Heat, James immediately felt that his hopes of winning the championship increased significantly. After all, his teammates around him became Wade and Bosh, but then losing to the Mavericks in 2011 made James quickly wake up from this inexplicable conceit. This time he knew that winning the championship was far from as simple as he thought.

So after losing, James began to constantly polish his shortcomings. Therefore, after that, we also saw a stronger player. James, who ushered in the transformation, led the Heat to win the championship in 2012 and 2013. During this period, he also won MVP+FMVP, which made him completely top the league's number one player. After losing to the Spurs in 2014, James chose to return to Cleveland, and his arrival also brought the long-silent Cavaliers back to the public's vision.

The third contract: 42.1 million (Cavs)

The first year after returning to the Cavaliers, James led the team to the finals, but due to the reimbursement of Love and Irving in succession of seasons, the team eventually lost to the Warriors 2-4. However, this failure did not disappoint James. He knew that the team was ruined by injuries. He firmly believed that as long as he stayed healthy, they could return to this stage. Therefore, he jumped out of the contract and signed a renewal with the Cavaliers during the offseason..

The fourth contract: 47 million (Cavs)

Then in the 2015-2016 season, the Cavaliers completed their revenge. In this finals, they were once behind their opponents 1-3, but James played an epic personal performance in the last three games. Finally, with his outbreak and the help of Irving and others, the Cavaliers successfully completed a major reversal. After seeing James kneeling down and crying, he could know that the significance of this championship to him is incomparable to his other championships, because in this championship, James not only fulfilled his promise to the Cavaliers, but also since then he has a clear conscience to the team. At the same time, this can be regarded as making up for the damage caused to the fans by his departure in 2010.

The fifth contract: 110 million (Cavs)

After winning the championship in three years, James naturally thought about defending the title first, so he renewed his contract with the team without any hesitation. Unfortunately, Durant's joining the Warriors caused the league to lose balance completely. So the two teams met again in the 2017 Finals and finally ended with the Cavaliers' defeat. Then Irving's departure made the team's strength further weakened. In the end, even though James played one of his best performances in his career in the 2017-2018 season, the team still lost to the Warriors in the end.

The sixth contract: 4 years 1.53 (Lakes)

James decided to join the Lakers during the offseason in 2018, and he signed a four-year long contract as soon as he came up. From this we can see that he obviously still believes that he can return to the top in the Lakers team. Later facts proved that James and the Lakers did succeed in both directions. After he joined, the team quickly built a championship lineup around him and won the championship in 2020. For the Lakers, if it were not for James, they would definitely not be able to get out of that dark period so quickly.

The seventh contract: 85 million (Lakes)

After winning the championship, James and the Lakers immediately completed the contract renewal, but unfortunately, due to injuries and other factors, the team never returned to the championship ranks.

The eighth contract: 97.1 million in 2 years (Lakes)

However, even though the team's record was not good, James still completed the contract renewal with the Lakers in 2022, and the team finally improved. They reached the Western Conference Finals again in the 2023 playoffs.

The ninth contract: 101 million in 2 years (Lakes)

James, who still maintained a pretty good state in the offseason in 2024, still signed a maximum salary contract with the Lakers, but James originally wanted to reduce the salary for the team, but unfortunately the team did not find a suitable candidate to strengthen.