What is standard these days for a four-year contract? LA Lakers’ Reaves isn’t okay with a $90 million extension, so he is waiting. Kevin Durant signed a $90 million contract for 2 years! So, a $100 million deal might not sound jaw-dropping in today’s NBA economy. So when Hawks guard Dyson Daniels inked his four-year, $100 million extension, fans didn’t exactly celebrate. But there are legends who never even came close to touching that kind of money!

Social media lit up with cries of “underpaid,” and that’s when NBA veteran Dwight Howard stepped in to give everyone a much-needed reality check. Dwight Howard shared the news of Daniels’ extension on X with a sigh, posting, “😮‍💨😮‍💨 yall saying underpaid man these boys getting paid I ain’t never even sign a $100 mill contract.” The biggest deal of his career came back in 2013, when he signed a four-year, $88 million max contract with the Houston Rockets, and on a per-year basis, it was with the Hawks $23,500,000.

And when you stack that up against other NBA legends, say, Shaquille O’Neal, the picture becomes clearer. Shaq’s richest deal came back in 1996, a seven-year, $120 million contract with the Lakers, just $20 million more than Daniels’ new deal. But the eras are worlds apart, and inflation has skyrocketed, so fans’ concerns about today’s contracts aren’t completely off base either.

Just before the deadline, Dyson Daniels and the Hawks sealed a four-year, $100 million extension, locking him in as their starting shooting guard through the 2029-30 season. The move means he’ll skip restricted free agency next summer. But the outage comes after comparing Daniels’ deal to other recent contracts, like Christian Braun’s five-year, $125 million extension with the Nuggets.

Braun, 24, posted career-highs last season with 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.1 steals per game, shooting 58% from the FG and 39.7% from three. Meanwhile, Dyson Daniels had a breakout season of his own, averaging 14.1 points (up from 5.8 the year before), 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and an incredible 3.0 steals per game. He also became the first player since Alvin Robertson in 1990-91 to average three steals.

Given Daniels’ historic defensive impact and all-around growth, many feel his $100 million deal should at least rival, if not surpass, Braun’s contract. Also, he just earned All-Defensive First Team honors, something players like Josh Giddey, CJ McCollum, Immanuel Quickley, and Jabari Smith Jr. haven’t done, even though they’ve all landed $100+ million contracts. That puts his deal into perspective: it’s big, but maybe still a little light for what he’s accomplished.

And for anyone arguing that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on another level, the numbers might surprise you. Daniels racked up 229 steals last season, the most by any player since Gary Payton’s 231 back in 1995-96. To put that in perspective, the gap between Daniels and second-place finisher SGA was a staggering 98 steals, the largest margin in NBA history. And hence the narrative, even if Dwight Howard didn’t sign a $100 million contract.

Are NBA players often underpaid, or is Daniels an exception?

Yes! It’s easy to believe this when you look at the true GOATs of the game like LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Even after earning max deals almost every season for 17 years, LeBron is still considered underpaid by $220.7 million according to the Real Value metric in 2024. One glaring example? In 2008-09, he earned $14.4 million with the Cavaliers, but his “real value” was $44.4 million, a staggering $30 million gap!

Gilbert Arenas even weighed in, saying, ‘All the greats were underpaid. Jordan was underpaid. Kobe was underpaid. Duncan was underpaid. Shaq was underpaid compared to who he was.’ Part of this underpayment story comes down to NBA rules. LeBron ran into the “over-36” and “over-38” rules when signing contracts with Cleveland and later the Lakers, which forced teams to spread money differently and limited what he could make.

Even Jordan, at the height of his career, was earning less than what his value suggested. By 1996-97, he had made just $24.9 million over his first nine seasons, and at one point, he was only the 11th highest-paid player in the league, despite being arguably the best in the world.

Fast forward to today, and NBA players are still feeling the squeeze in different ways. Stephen Curry, who will make nearly $60 million next season, recently explained why players are still underpaid despite the big numbers. On Complex, he said, “I think, because of the way the CBA is structured right now, we can’t participate in equity. And that’s a big deal because it is a partnership with ownership. …Just because I think we deserve it.”

Curry also highlighted how NBA salaries have exploded compared to other sports—this season, the average player made nearly $12 million, compared to about $3 million in the NFL—but the league’s structure still leaves players on the short end of the overall revenue pie. He added, “Hopefully, sooner than later, those rules change a little bit so that players can participate more in the upside of team equity, the league, valuations, and all that type of stuff.” 

Basically, Curry is saying the numbers look huge on paper, but NBA stars, past and present, still aren’t getting fully paid what they’re actually worth. Dwight Howard will agree after this? We will again let you know!