Anthony and James are both players of the class of 2003, but Anthony is a few months older than James, and as he gets older, Anthony's status declines particularly quickly, since leaving the Knicks, he has become a tramp in the NBA, playing for the Thunder, Rockets, and Blazers, and joining the Lakers with a base salary this season, hoping to win a championship ring at the end of his career.
However, the Lakers' performance this season has been disappointing, not only failed to rule the whole league, even the playoffs can not enter, Anthony's championship dream is once again shattered, his contract with the Lakers has expired, the 37-year-old has become a free agent again, whether he will choose to retire or fight again is unknown. How much did he make in the NBA for 19 seasons?
In 2003, Anthony was selected by the Denver Nuggets with the third overall pick in the first round, and for the first four years of his career, he was on a rookie contract with an annual salary of $3.23 million, $3.47 million, $3.71 million and $4.69 million.
In the final year of his rookie contract, Anthony averaged 28.9 points, 6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.4 blocks, shooting 47.6 percent from the field, and his outstanding performance earned him a big contract, and in the three seasons since, he has received $13.04 million, $14.41 million and $15.78 million from the Nuggets every year.
After signing a big contract, Anthony's performance declined, his scoring average decreased, his scoring efficiency decreased, and he failed to lead the team to good results, and the Nuggets decided to trade him. In the 2010-2011 season, Anthony played 50 games for the Nuggets, averaging 2.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, and was again named to the All-Star Team, and after the All-Star game, he was traded to the Knicks by the Nuggets.
In the first four seasons of the Knicks, Anthony's annual salary was $17.15 million, $18.52 million, $19.45 million and $22.41 million, respectively. In these 4 seasons, he played an excellent performance, averaging 26+ points per game in 3 seasons, and the highest season averaged 28.7 points per game, successfully elected the scoring champion, leading the Knicks to excellent results.
In the summer of 2014, the Knicks offered an outstanding Anthony a five-year, $129 million top salary extension, which they wanted to encourage Anthony to continue to work hard and lead the team to better results, but Anthony signed a big contract and chose to lie flat, and since then there has not been a season of averaging more than 25 points per game, and another season of shooting more than 45% shooting, which is very bad.
Three seasons after signing a big contract, Anthony received $22.46 million, $22.88 million and $24.56 million from the Knicks, watching him perform worse and worse, the Knicks' record was worse than a year, the team traded him to the Thunder in 2017, when he received $26.24 million from the Thunder, and Westbrook and George formed the Thunder Triumvirate.
However, at that time, Anthony only had a salary as a giant, and his performance had nothing to do with the giants, averaging 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.6 blocks per game, shooting only 43.3%, and he was traded to the Eagles at the end of the season, the two sides reached a buyout agreement, Anthony received a salary of $25.53 million from the Eagles (paid using extended terms, $8.51 million per year), his big contract career officially ended, and the base salary career was about to begin.
Shortly after reaching a buyout with the Hawks, Anthony signed with the Rockets and was traded to the Bulls for poor performance after 10 games, and his salary was paid by the Bulls for $2.39 million a year, but he was cut by the Bulls after only 10 days.
At that time, it was widely believed that Anthony was no longer suitable for survival in the NBA, he had more than 4 months without the ball, and then the Blazers signed him with a one-year $2.16 million veteran base salary contract, and he played a good offensive performance in the Blazers, especially shooting 38.5% from outside the three-point line, and the Blazers signed it with a $2.56 million bottom-line contract at the end of the season.
In the second season of the Blazers, Anthony willingly accepted the role of a substitute and fought the defensive end, although the effect was not good, but the attitude was very good, his shooting rate outside the three-point line reached 40.9%, successfully attracted the attention of the Lakers, and the Lakers signed him for $2.64 million at the end of the season, which is Anthony's last contract so far.
In his 19-year NBA career, Anthony earned a total of $263 million (pre-tax salary), a very staggering number, but james earned $387 million in his own class, and Anthony's salary was $124 million less than James's, which is a big difference.
When they first entered the NBA, their salaries and performances were similar, but different attitudes made their gap wider and wider, Anthony pursued personal data, regardless of the team's record, there were teammates who broke the news that he only got 30+, the team lost and was very happy, and James used comprehensive technology to lead the team to win, win while getting good personal data, Anthony gradually became a scorer, James gradually became a top leader.
After getting a big contract, Anthony seems to have lost motivation, playing a year is not as good as a year, James continues to work hard, after getting a big contract, he does not relax himself, spends a lot of money on training and maintaining his body every offseason, so that he has been in a high-level state, when Anthony declines because of his age, he is still one of the best players in the league, when Anthony can only get the basic salary contract, he can still get the top salary contract, which is why although they are the same player, the total salary difference is 124 million US dollars.