Throughout the course of the history of free agency in the NBA, there have been multiple franchise-altering deals that have taken place (like Shaquille O’Neal going to Los Angeles and LeBron James going to Miami). But for every one of those, you can probably find a half-dozen (or more) contracts that altered the course of an NBA team in the exact opposite direction — crippling the team’s salary cap and overall financial flexibility, setting them back for a multitude of years.
Some of them look bad with the benefit of hindsight, and some of them came as NBA teams overpaid for certain positions or players, but many of them were seen as horrific deals from the moment they were signed. Here is our list of the worst contracts in recent NBA history.
Jeff says
I love Kobe and all but his last contract with the Lakers, crippled the team’s chances at signing quality players he might of been able to win another championship.
Truthspeaker says
How was Webber, a Rookie if the year, 5 time All Star, and Hall of Famer a bad contract ? Bad for him at 75 million over 15 years is a steal for a player of his caliber.
Ray says
I agree with your statement, because a lot of NBA players are getting paid 100,000,000 dollars or more for a 4 year contract or maybe even 6 years.
Bob says
7 of the 38 by the Knicks
Lakeshowwill says
Where is the horrific Luel Deng contract?! You listed the Lakers signing Mosgov but even worse was Deng!!!
Rod says
Smh this is why I hate Washington worst franchise ever
Mitch Kupkake says
How many bad contracts is Brooklyn responsible for makeing offers to restricted free agents?
Tom says
Why do they do it yet where they hand over millions of dollars for what? How many players sit on the bench and receive 6 – 10 million or some other considerable amount and don’t get on the floor during games or maybe play 5 minutes or less. Billionaires playing with their own money and getting cities to build them arenas.
Jerry Coccoli says
I can’t believe that these Basketball Stars were paid such astronomical salaries and made them play with no strings attached.
They were HIGHLY overpaid and did not produce in proportion to the big dollars they were receiving.
Why did these franchises go along with these mind-boggling outrageous paydays? Were there any backstory reasons which we know nothing about?
These travesties require further investigation until we the public can get proper closure. RIGHT NOW THIS IS ALL BULL-CRAP.
Sam bam says
You idiot, do you not see how much revenue these team produce yearly? If anything the players should get more…
Rlswinn76 says
Because for every Brian Reeves there may be a Kawhi Leonard.
Kel Gee says
Obviously, you don’t know how much they get paid now. And if you think it’s a lot, don’t you think players should get some of the profit instead of it all going to the owners?