LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant Headline Top-Paid NBA Stars for 2022 Season

NBA stars don't have the benefit of the lucrative contracts given to NFL and MLB players, but when it comes to annual earnings, basketball players have a clear advantage.

On Thursday, Sportico revealed the highest-paid players in the NBA, with LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant topping the list:

James has the distinction of being the only player in U.S. team sports to become a billionaire during his playing career. The 37-year-old earned a league-high $119.5 million last year, with an eye-popping chunk coming from his endorsements:

Per Sportico's Kurt Badenhausen, the 15 highest-paid players in the NBA will earn an estimated $969 million this season from salary and endorsements. That number tops soccer ($755 million), the NFL ($675 million) and MLB ($541 million). Badenhausen noted that 35 percent of the NBA players' expected earnings came from endorsements alone:

It's expected that NBA salaries will increase as time goes by, so it's likely that we'll continue to see astronomical yearly earnings for the league's top stars.