NBA
Clipper Starting Five Has Totaled 1.25 Billion in Career NBA Earnings
Mat Issa is based in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Yes, he spells his name with one "t." He's obsessed with NBA history, so much so that he's dedicated nearly two years of research to his two mini-series', "Blazing the Trail" and "The Quest for the Best." Right now, Mat goes to law school and writes about the NBA for The Analyst, Forbes, and of course, Basketball Insiders. His work has also been featured in ESPN, SB Nation, FanSided, Basketball News, ONE37pm, and Raptors Republic. Also, he's a lifelong Spartans fan. Go Green!
All posts by Mat IssaUpdated08 Nov 2023
After pulling the trigger on a blockbuster deal to acquire former league MVP James Harden, the Los Angeles Clippers now field a starting lineup comprised of him, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Ivica Zubac, and Russell Westbrook.
That lineup comes with a lot of pros and cons on the court (more on that in this article by our very own Jackson Frank), but off of it, boy, have those guys made a ton of money.
Starting Five Has Made a Combined 1.25 Billion
Between Harden, George, Leonard, Zubac, and Westbrook, the Clippers starting five has earned roughly 1.25 billion dollars during their NBA careers. And that is just from the NBA alone. That figure doesn’t include the countless off-the-court endorsements/ventures these five have been a part of.
According to estimates provided by the ultra-valuable website Spotrac, Russell Westbrook has earned roughly 340 million from playing in the NBA thus far, Harden has earned 339 million, George has earned 305 million, Leonard has earned 277 million, and Zubac has earned about 46 million. All that adds up to that 1.25 billion number you see in the headline.
The funny thing about that figure is that it does not even come close to touching the net worth of the team’s owner, Steve Ballmer. According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list, Ballmer is estimated to be worth roughly 109.1 billion dollars.
Worth Every Penny
That 1.25 billion number seems hard to understand on the surface. What could any collection of people possibly do to earn all that money? But that quintet of Clippers has more than earned the checks they get in the mail every two weeks.
Between the five of them, we have two MVP awards, two Finals MVPs, five scoring titles, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, 27 All-NBA nominations, 32 All-Star appearances, 11 All-Defensive Team nominations, and two steals titles. Admittedly, Zubac didn’t contribute to any of those accolades, but he’s still a rock-solid starting center.
But that could change for Zubac if he helps this billion-dollar lineup deliver the Clippers their first title in franchise history.
