Not Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson but This Knicks Legend Was the Highest Paid Player in 1989–90

Back in the late 80s, the NBA was full of stars. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had dominated the era, a young Michael Jordan had taken it by storm and there were several other stars who had set the league on fire. But incidentally, none of them were the highest-paid player in the league.

It was actually a New York Knicks legend who was the highest-paid at that time. An old document showing the top paid salaries of the 1989-90 season revealed who was getting paid the most. It was none other than Patrick Ewing, who was getting paid $3.75 million a year. Ewing was the first pick of the 1985 draft and he was in the league for 4 years.

It was surprising to see that the top-paid player was not Jordan or Magic.

Knicks legend was paid more than Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan

It was very surprising to see Ewing’s name on top of the list, as he had made only one all-star team and still had zero All-NBA selections. What was more surprising was that Magic was the third highest-paid and Jordan was the 6th. Magic was a five-time champion and was the face of the league. He had several All-Star and All-NBA selections to his name.

Jordan was in his fourth year, and he had already shown great promise. He was touted to be the next big thing and already had a few all-star selections and All-NBA selections. So it was amazing to see Jordan, not in the top 5.

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Other prominent names which were on the list were Chris Mullin, who was 2nd, Charles Barkley, who was 4th, and Larry Bird, who was 5th. Isiah Thomas, Kevin McHale, Dominique Williams, John Stockton, and Karl Malone were not even in the top 10. One more interesting thing to see is the difference in player salaries.

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Today, a rotation player gets more than $15 million a year and the highest ever paid could go up to $50 million a year. Does the list surprise you? Let us know in the comments!