The enigma of landing profitable brand endorsements and NBA earnings continues. This comes with the NBA’s list of highest-paid players for 2023-24 coming out. With Kyrie Irving landing a huge ANTA deal in July this year, the list comes as a shocker to everyone.

Kyrie is nowhere to be seen in the list. The question is why does Irving still find himself outside the list of the elite highest-paid players?

The list remains elusive

NBA’s highest-paid players’ list is out with stars like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson among the top 5. The list is surprisingly missing the 8 x All-Star player, Kyrie Irving.

The star point guard is currently signed to a huge three-year contract with the Mavs worth up to $126 million. The contract includes $120 million guaranteed and $6 million in incentives linked to “games played and team performance”. Kyrie returned to Mavericks where he could return to free agency for the third season, amounting to a potential $42 million.

The list comes as a shocker since the superstar also landed a massive deal with the Chinese sportswear brand, ANTA in July this year. The five-year endorsement has also led to him being given the position of the brand’s Chief Creative Officer. Anta Sports is said to have a market cap of $33.11 Billion.

The huge ANTA deal follows Irving’s fallout with Nike last December. This was after controversies surrounding the player’s behavior on social media being associated with antisemitism.

It’s time to step up!

Kyrie previously had a signature line with Nike and the record of one of the highest-selling shoes as well. The player’s line reportedly earned him $11 million annually just from the endorsement. Just as everything was going fine, the player made the mistake of posting a link to a movie with antisemitic messages on X. This led to Nike ending their partnership and even canceling the release of the much anticipated Nike Kyrie 8 sneaker. The Brooklyn Nets, for whom Kyrie was playing at that time, also suspended him for the same. They later traded him to the Mavericks last season.

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With LeBron and Curry leading the list, the major reason seems to be their shoe contracts. LeBron has signed a lifetime deal with Nike which pays over $30 million annually. While Curry extended his long-term partnership with Under Armour, with $75 million worth of restricted stock units as part of the contract.

However, Irving seems to find it hard to keep up with the hyper-competitive world of the NBA even after scoring massive deals and trading teams. With the competition getting tougher, Kyrie might need to step it up for good this time. How will he manage to stand out and secure a place on the list? That is for us to find out as the time passes.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below.

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