Jeremy Lin may have had a topsy-turvy year playing for the Los Angeles Lakers but his one-year stint with the Showtime franchise has netted him a career-high $14.9 million in salary during the 2014-15 NBA season.
Although he signed a three-year $25 million deal with the Houston Rockets beginning with the 2012-13 NBA season, it was actually a back-loaded contract and thus the Lakers assumed the bigger payment responsibility when he was acquired from the Rockets on the third and final year of his contract at the start of the 2014-15 NBA season.
Coupled with his endorsement deals with Adidas and Tag Heuer where he netted $4 million, Jeremy Lin actually racked up a total of $18.9 million in 2015, reports Yibada.
While he is already a free agent this summer, Jeremy Lin would not be able to command a salary of $14.9 million, which he got from the Lakers last season and the 26-year-old Harvard graduate is pretty much aware of that too.
Lin’s total of $18.9 million earnings last year alone was more than enough to help him barge into Forbes’ list of top 100 highest paid athletes in 2015, good for 97th place in a tie with Max Scherzer of baseball and Maurkice Pouncey of football.
The updated list of Forbes’ top 100 highest paid athletes saw Mayweather occupying the No. 1 spot with his $300 million from his earning during his May 3 fight with Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, who is at the No. 2 spot in the Forbes list with $160 million.
Rounding out the top six world’s highest paid athletes this year based on the Forbes list is soccer superstars Cristiano Ronaldo at No. 3 with $79.6 million and Lionel Messi at the fourth spot with $73.8 million, Roger Federer of tennis with $67 million earnings at No. 5, and LeBron James of basketball with $64.8 million at sixth spot.
Mavericks eyeing Lin
The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly eyeing to get Jeremy Lin from the free agency market in the event that the team fails to re-sign its prolific point guard Monta Ellis. The Mavericks need someone to fill the spot and given the options in the free agency market, Dallas may actually consider going after Jeremy Lin and give the frontrunning Denver Nuggets a run for the money.
Lin would be a good addition to the Mavericks with their run-and-gun offense which is much to Jeremy Lin’s style of play.
But it is unlikely that Dallas will offer him a $25 million three-year contract that the Houston Rockets offered the Harvard graduate when they signed him up in 2012.
Stint with the Nuggets looms
However, the prospect of Jeremy Lin suiting up for the Denver Nuggets now looms high on the horizon following the decision of the Mile High franchise to trade point guard Ty Lawson.
Reports have it that the Nuggets want to use Lawson as trade leverage before the June 25 NBA draft so that the team can get another high pick, in addition to their current 7th pick in the upcoming draft.