Kevin Durant is one of the best offensive players that the NBA has ever seen. He is a 7ft freak of nature, with guard like handles and a deadly shot for anywhere on the court. He has been brilliant on every team he has played for so far in his career. These performances and his stardom certainly come with significant monetary compensation.
How does Kevin Durant make his money? Kevin Durant makes the majority of his money through his NBA contract with the Brooklyn Nets. Durant also makes money from a variety of endorsement deals and different business investments.
Kevin Durant will get the majority of his money through his NBA contract. At the end of his time with the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant made it clear he wanted to move on from the Warriors. On the 7th of July 2019, Durant announced that he was signing with the Brooklyn Nets in a sign and trade with the Warriors.
It is no surprise that Durant wanted to move away from the Warriors. It is not to do with the team as KD could not stop winning while in Golden State. When he joined the Warriors he took an undervalued deal to help the Warriors stack their roster. The winning clearly wasn’t enough for him and he decided to leave the Bay in search of a new challenge.
Durant clearly enjoyed his first couple seasons with Brooklyn as on the 8th of August 2021 he signed a four year extension with the total contract value at $198 million. This contract begins at the start of the 2022-23 season. So for the current season his cap hit was $40.9 million.
This is the majority of Durant’s income as it is his career and the Brooklyn Nets certainly benefit from having him on the team. This is not the first big contract that Durant signed. As he has constantly been one of the best players in the NBA, Durant has consistently been one of the highest paid players in the league.
Over the total of his career so far, Durant has earned around $306.172 million mainly thanks to consistently having one of the highest salaries in the NBA. If he sees out his current contract then Durant will have total career earnings of $499.8 million. He will only be 37 then, so the chances are he’ll secure a new contract that pushes him past that $500 million mark.
While base salary is the large majority of his contract earnings, it is not the only money from his NBA contract that Durant gets. The new contract that Durant signed means that for the 2022-23 season he will have an incentive bonus of $1.15 million which is usually linked to whether the Nets make the playoffs or not.
His salary is certainly one of the best in the NBA. For the 2021-22 season he was the sixth highest earner in the NBA when looking at season salary with Lebron James, Russell Westbrook, John Wall, James Harden and Steph Curry the players earning more than Durant this season.
He is also the highest earner on his team, earning around $7 million more than second highest earning teammate Kyrie Irving. Positionally, the only small forward earning more than Durant is Lebron James of the Los Angeles Lakers. While Durant’s salary is the main way he earns money, it is not the only way.
Durant’s Off Court Empire
Endorsement deals are a big part of Durant’s money coming in. With 13 million followers on Instagram and hundreds of millions of people knowing his name worldwide, it is no surprise that some very big companies pay a lot of money to have sponsorships from the two times Finals MVP.
As it is with pretty much every other NBA player, the majority of his endorsement revenue comes from his shoe deal. Having attracted a lot of suitors coming out of college, he signed a $60 million deal with Nike in 2007. In 2014 this became a ten year, $300 million deal that makes him one of the highest paid players in the NBA.
It is not the only endorsement that brings in a huge amount of money to Kevin Durant. He will also get money from sponsors like Alaska Airlines and Google. KD has appeared in adverts for Gatorade, Sonic and many other companies. They will have to pay the big bucks to get Durant in their adverts.
Kevin Durant has been very smart with his money in a way that a lot of different NBA players are beginning to do. There are reports that Durant has invested in more than 50 different companies including Postmates, Acorns and Lime.
Some of these investments will give dividends to their shareholders at the end of every financial year and this will be an influx of money for Durant. If Durant decides to sell his investment in any of these companies at any time, this will be a good way to make money as he makes profit on his investment.
There have been some estimates for the total amount of money that Durant has brought in during the 2021-22 NBA season. Forbes have estimated this number to be around $87.9 million. This will include his NBA contract, endorsements and investments as well as contract incentives and sponsorships.
If this figure was accurate, it would make him the third highest total earner for the 2021-22 season when you include off the court earnings. Four time MVP Lebron James sits top of that list on $111.2 million, with Durant’s former teammate Steph Curry said to be earning a total of $92.8 million for the 2021-22 season.
What is Kevin Durant’s Net Worth?
It is estimated that Kevin Durant’s net worth is somewhere in the region of $200 million. It is difficult to accurately estimate this as his investment portfolio is something that he is not always public with and that will likely make up the majority of his net worth.
The estimate is a combination of his career earnings from the various NBA contracts in his career as well as different endorsements and sponsorships where the details are not always public information.