The NBA has always featured superstars with enormous value because of their court performance. Michael Jordan once said no one could pay his true worth. Is that LeBron James’ reality today?
Former Warriors star Gilbert Arenas believes so. He claims LeBron has been underpaid his entire career. And yet, Forbes 2025 ranked him the sixth richest athlete worldwide with $581 million in earnings.
Salary caps block fair payment
According to Essentiallysports, LeBron knows his true NBA value and demands what he deserves. Arenas said on his show:
“Cleveland owes him more. Miami owes him more. We all owe him money.” He added: “Jordan, Kobe, Duncan, Shaq — all were underpaid compared to their value.”
Gilbert arenas says he understands why the lakers wouldn’t extend lebron James with a contract extension pic.twitter.com/UhhGuwH8LF
— joebuddenclips/fanpage (@chatnigga101) September 28, 2025
LeBron signed max contracts nearly every season, yet Real Value 2024 still labeled him underpaid. In 2023-24, James earned $47.6M, while his value was $39.7M — an overpayment of $8M. But in 2008-09, he earned $14.4M with Cleveland, while worth $44.4M — a $30M gap.
During four Miami Heat seasons, he made $14.5M, $16M, $17.5M, and $19M. He felt underpaid there too.
NBA rules limit contracts
In 2016, LeBron lost a $200M Cleveland contract due to the “over-36 rule.” At 31, his fifth year’s salary had to be redistributed, breaking salary cap limits. In 2020, the “over-38 rule” changed his Lakers deal in a similar way. According to Arenas, this will always happen to NBA legends. The league will always owe its greatest players money.
