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Jarrett Jack was shocked when he first saw a teammate's pay cheque: "Seven figures. And that's in 2005"
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- Jarrett Jack was shocked when he first saw a teammate's pay cheque: "Seven figures. And that's in 2005"
At the start of the NBA's creation in 1946 and up until the 1980s, players earned modest, middle-class wages. Some even had secondary jobs in the summer just to pay the bills.
But after a few decades, as the league kept rising, so did its salary cap and the pay cheques followed. In the 1960s, an athlete's average salary was $15,000, three times higher than in 1940, when it was $5,000.
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In the mid-1980s, however, that number would skyrocket after Moses Malone and Bill Walton became the first players to earn a guaranteed $1 million contract in a single season in 1979-1980.
As the decade went on, the rest of the league caught up and the average jumped to an astronomical $300,000. At that point, an average player was making enough money to set themselves up for life, if they budgeted correctly, of course.
Since then, the NBA and its players have become walking bank accounts and have kept rising with each decade that passes.
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Jack recalls witnessing teammates' crazy pay cheques
By the time Jarrett Jack entered the league as the 22nd overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, selected by the Denver Nuggets and immediately traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, the average pay for an NBA player was $4.2 million.
Still, the average can be very misleading across eras, as superstars like Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett took home around $20 to $28 million annually and were bumping the numbers significantly. For the league's median salary, however, the middle value across all players' salaries, it sat around $2.5 million.
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So, while it wasn't at the level it is today, a significant portion of players received regular pay cheques in the seven figures, which Jack found bizarre when he first entered the league.
"This was like the age of, when they used to bring you a cheque into the locker room," said Jack. "The guys who were making like really bigtime money, seeing what they made every two weeks. That was crazy. Then, you would look at yours as a rookie and you like, 'Hold on, bro.'"
"I ain't goin' throw 'em out there, but it was seven figures, though. 82 [games]. And that's 2005. So, the way money has grown now, I can only imagine what those first and the 15th conversations looking like."
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Z-Bo is the only correct answer
Based on the state of the Trail Blazers' roster at that time and today's widespread information, it isn't hard to realize that Zach Randolph was by far the highest-paid player on the team, earning $10,666,667 annually. Rookie Martell Webster followed with significantly less, $2,586,120.
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Hypothetically, if Z-Bo was paid across a six-month schedule, which was probably the case, his two-week payment was a staggering $888,888 and some change.
At the time, however, Randolph had just become a consistent 20-10 machine, meaning he probably earned some pretty bonuses for filling up the stat sheet every night, which would round up the number at seven figures.
In the 2005-06 season, he averaged 18 points and eight rebounds per game before exploding for a career-best year in the following season with 23.6 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Considering Z-Bo was a borderline All-Star and a valuable piece most would've liked to have, he earned every single penny he was given.
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Related: Zach Randolph hints at Russell Westbrook's NBA comeback after meeting his brother
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Sep 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
