LeBron James signed a new contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, which will keep him at the club at least until the summer of 2024, and will certainly turn him into the highest-paid basketball player in the history of the NBA, the first to break the $500 million mark in his career.

The new two-year contract is worth 97.1 million dollars and will be activated after the upcoming season, for which James will receive 44.5 million from the old contract. In the new contract, LeBron has the right to terminate after the first season, i.e. in the summer of 2024, when his son Bronny, with whom he wants to finish his career, could join the NBA.

The new contract brings James' total NBA earnings to $532 million, making LeBron the first player to earn more than half a billion from basketball contracts alone. The previous record holder was Kevin Durant, who signed a four-year extension with the Brooklyn Nets last season and has guaranteed career earnings totaling $499 million.

In June, James made the Forbes list of billionaires as the first active NBA player in history. His off-field earnings (from sponsors, films, and various investments...) have previously exceeded 500 million, so even before the new contract with the Lakers, he had total lifetime earnings of more than a billion dollars.

Biggest earnings from NBA contracts:

1. LeBron James $532 million

2. Kevin Durant 499

3. Stephen Curry 470

4. Damian Lillard 450

5. Bradley Beal 429

6. Chris Paul 420

7. Nikola Jokic 419

8. Karl-Anthony Towns 406

9. Devin Booker 391

10. Joel Embiid 375