With his newest contract leading him to the San Antonio Spurs, Tobias Harris is set to surpass Kobe Bryant in total career earnings.
Harris signed a two-year, $31 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs in free agency. After a rejuvenating stint with the Detroit Pistons, Harris saw his value improve significantly.
This latest contract is his fifth in the NBA, in a career that has already seen him earn $300 million. But the amount of money this contract will pay him will take him past one of the all-time greats in career earnings.
Tobias Harris will overtake Kobe Bryant in NBA career earnings
Up until this point, Tobias Harris has earned $300 million in his NBA career. And if he sees out this newest contract with the San Antonio Spurs, he will reach $330 million in career earnings.
This figure would see him surpass the legendary Kobe Bryant, who earned $323 million across his 20-year NBA career.
Of course, the context matters greatly here. Bryant earned $323 million in the NBA at a time when maximum salaries and salary cap figures were drastically lower than they are now.
In fact, Bryant was earning max money for almost his entire career, and still only managed to earn this amount across his career.
Compare this to Tobias Harris, whose biggest contract was a five-year, $180 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers – which only made him the third-highest-paid player on the team at the time.
Kobe Bryant never earned as much as Tobias Harris’ best contract
Kobe Bryant’s highest-paying contract came in 2010, when he signed a three-year, $83 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.
This meant he had an average salary of $27 million a year. Compare this to the kind of money a player of Bryant’s level would make in today’s NBA, and the difference is drastic.
Harris’ five-year, $180 million contract with the 76ers paid him an average of $36 million a year. Harris was effectively the third option on the roster behind Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons at the time.
One has to wonder what kind of salary Bryant in his prime would command in the modern NBA, where player contracts have grown astronomically.
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