The Most Underpaid NBA Players of All Time

Grading overpaid vs. underpaid: 5-12
Real value: $464,107,250
Career Earnings: $405,940,020
Difference: $58,167,230 (14.33 percent)

The league’s former MVP Kevin Durant was able to miss an entire season due to injury in his prime and is still considered one of the lowest paid players of all time. He tells you everything you need to know about how great the future Hall-of-Famer is when he’s healthy.

Real Value estimates that Durant was most underpaid in 2009-10, with a $22.1 million difference between his Real Value and his actual salary, which was just $4.8 million that year. This season, Durant was incredibly valuable, leading the league with 30.1 points per game along with 7.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals while appearing in all 82 games. Durant’s Thunder also posted a 50-32 record this season as the Washington, D.C. native’s efforts earned him second place in MVP voting and second place in Most Improved Player, as well as being an all-time honoree. Star and 1st Team All-NBAer.

To do all that and make less than $5 million for the season is really hard to believe in hindsight.

Of course, with Durant now older and still making so much money, Real Value assumes he’s been somewhat overpaid over the last two years, including in 2023-24, when our stats say he’ll be around 11.3 Millions of US dollars was overpaid. Even then, the Phoenix Suns have to be thrilled with what they got out of the veteran scorer in his age-35 season, as Durant is still averaging over 27 points per game on a shooting percentage of 52 in the 2023-24 season. 3 percent while also taking home 2nd NBA and All-Star awards.

Durant’s true value is still extremely high, as our metric showed an output of $36.3 million last season alone. It’s simply because the new-age max contracts (Durant made over $47 million last year) are so massive that even the best players have a hard time topping them.

For more from Kevin Durant Career salary information can be found here.