LeBron James and Stephen Curry Top Forbes' List of Highest-Paid NBA Players

Forbes' list of highest-paid NBA players puts LeBron James and Stephen Curry at the top, after accounting for endorsements and business ventures.

LeBron James and Stephen Curry are the NBA's highest-paid players including endorsements, according to a Forbes list that was published Tuesday.

Forbes estimated that James made $88.7 million in the 2018-19 season, with $53 million coming from lucrative endorsement deals with Nike, Coca-Cola, and Beats By Dre. James also has a significant stake in Blaze Pizza. Curry made $79.5 million with $42 million in endorsements. Following James' lead, Curry has created the SC30 company to manage his interests and started his own production company.

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden round out the rest of the top five. 

NBA's highest-paid-players 2018-19, including endorsements via @Forbes:
1. LeBron $88.7M
2. Curry $79.5M
3. KD $65M
4. Westbrook $53.7M
5. Harden $47.4Mhttps://t.co/garKWnYgHU pic.twitter.com/oVwGextCbH

— Kurt Badenhausen (@kbadenhausen) February 12, 2019

In total, the top ten players on the list are expected to make $540 million in 2018-19, which is up $180 million from five years ago. The youngest player on the list is the Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is seventh. The young superstar made $43.2 million with $19 million coming in endorsements. 

The large increase over the past five years shows NBA players are increasingly looking to build their personal brands and companies to make even more money. James, Curry and Durant were all reported to make more off the court than through their NBA salaries.