With an average salary of over $5 million per year, NBA players are among sports' wealthiest athletes. Yet, even within that stratosphere, there is a hierarchy. Alex Rodriguez will make over $29 million to play baseball for the New York Yankees this season.f the 25 highest-paid NBA players this season, there is only one who wasn't a first-round pick in the NBA draft. That's Carlos Boozer. Boozer lasted all the way until the second round of the 2002 NBA draft. He went 35th to the Cleveland Cavaliers.