It is obvious that most NBA players are paid a fortune by the teams they play for. Based on the 2021-22 season, the salary of an average NBA player is $7.3 million. Whereas players like Stephen Curry and LeBron James are paid anywhere from $20 million to over $40 million per season. However, there have come times when NBA stars like Shaquille O’Neal deliberately settled for a lesser amount for the sake of the franchise.

Former Houston Rockets player James Harden can also be listed among the players who took pay cuts. Harden was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in 2021 and after playing for just one season, Harden was again traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers had hoped for Harden to join forces with Joel Embiid and lead the team to the championship. Evidently, Harden opted out of his $47 million player option to help the Sixers bring in stronger players.

Similarly, former NBA player Dwyane Wade decided to take a pay cut along with fellow Miami Heat teammates LeBron James and Chris Bosh. While signing the ‘Big Three’ was an achievement for the Heat in itself, the franchise also needed to tend to their other players. As the Heat was about to lose one of their players, the ‘Big Three’ decided to take a pay cut to help out the franchise. Dwyane Wade reportedly waived $1.5 million from his annual salary.

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However, James Harden and Dwyane Wade were not the only ones who took pay cuts. Long before them, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal had given up a huge sum of money for the sake of the franchise as well.

Shaquille O’Neal helps out the Miami Heat

Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004, after playing for eight years with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers wanted to extend their contract with the Big Aristotle, but both parties could not come to an agreement. Additionally, the trade did not come as much of a surprise due to the highly-publicized feud between O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

?Remember this I?m going to bring a championship to Miami, I promise,? said Shaq.

O’Neal signed a five-year contract with the Heat that was worth $100 million. Evidently, Shaq had a player option of $30.6 million but eventually decided to opt-out of it. He settled on $20 million per season, while also giving financial flexibility to the franchise.

“This contract allows me to address all of my family’s long-term financial goals while allowing the Heat the ability to acquire those players that we need to win a championship,” said Shaq.

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Things arguably worked out well for the Heat as the NBA star led the team to their first-ever NBA championship in 2006.