Big Country, Big Snacks, Big Money. It's The NBA's Most Overpaid Players Ever

In sports, there’s nothing worse than a bad contract. Ok, being terrible and not winning any games is pretty bad, but let’s put bad contracts right behind that. Some teams can survive a bad contract or two because they print money (looking at you, Yankees), but other more small market teams can handcuff themselves to an awful contract and wear it like an albatross around their necks, sometimes having to continue to pay on the contract for ​years​ after a player retires (looking at you, Mets).

You see less of this in the NFL where the contracts are non-guaranteed, but in the MLB and NBA where the money is guaranteed, there have been ​so ​many bad contracts over the years, and continue to be. It’s not the players fault, really. If owners are willing to give them ridiculous sums of money, they aren’t going to say no. The salary cap is structured such in the NBA where teams can fit in a monstrous contract here and there, sometimes even two, so for the sake of this article, let’s take a look back at some of the most overpaid NBA players ever.

10. Nicholas Batum - SF

Batum signed a 5-year, $120 million contract in the 2016 season. The NBA had just increased the salary cap that season, and mediocre role players hit the lottery. Batum was a decent player, but not good enough to get the 16th largest contract in NBA history. He’s currently on his second stint on the injured list, reinjuring the finger that he fractured opening night that sidelined him for a month.

9. Jerome James - C

The fact that James’ nickname was “Big Snacks” should tell you how this one ended up. James signed a 5-year $30 million contract in 2005 primarily based off of a nice performance with the Sonics in the 2005 NBA playoffs. He arrived at his first Knicks training camp that year woefully out of shape (was obviously “big snacking), and during the season, his play reflected that, as he averaged 3.1 points and 2.1 rebounds while playing 9 minutes a game. He was suspended by the team in January 2006 for not being prepared to practice. Three years later, he would be out of the league for good. A case study in overachieving the season before you hit free agency to get that big contract, then reverting back to your actual abilities.

8. Austin Croshere - PF

Another guy who got paid based off of a postseason performance, Croshere had a great 2000 NBA playoffs, and helped lead the Indiana Pacers to their first NBA Finals since the ABA-NBA merger. Then he got paid. He signed a 7 year, $51 million extension following that season, and never again reached the same on-court heights of that 2000 NBA postseason.

7. Darius Miles - SF

Miles signed a 6 year, $48 million contract in 2004, but was nothing but a disappointment during his NBA career. The only thing he did well was being mediocre, and two of the years of the contract he didn’t even play because of bad knees.

6. Jim McIlvane - C

The Sonics were notorious in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s for handing out bad contracts, and the one given to McIlvane may have taken the cake. In 1996 he signed a 7 year, $33 million deal (a lot of money in the 1990s), but did literally nothing after. He averaged 2.7 points and 3.1 rebounds per game throughout his NBA career.

5. Eddy Curry - PF/C

Curry was traded to the New York Knicks in 2005 from the Chicago Bulls and was promptly signed to a new contract, 6 years, $60 million. It was downhill after that. He averaged 13.6 points a game that season, down from 16.1 the previous season, then had a resurgence during the 2006 season averaging 19.5 points per game. He spent the rest of that contract riddled with injury and weight problems, only playing 59, 3, and 7 games the last three years of the deal.

4. Gilbert Arenas - PG

The Wizards gave Arenas, up to this point a three-time All-Star and electrifying player, a 6 year, $111 million deal in 2008. They were going to give him a max deal worth $127 million but he gave them the hometown discount because he felt saving that money on him would help build a championship team around him. That didn’t happen, and the Wizards gave him this huge contract ​after ​he had already shown how prone he was to injury. He only played 55 games for the Wizards in the three seasons after the deal, and was eventually traded to the Orlando Magic in 2010.

3. Bryant Reeves - C

“Big Country," as he is affectionately known, signed a 6 year, $65 million deal with the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997. He had a solid rookie season in ‘95, then improved on that the following year enough that Vancouver backed up the Brinks truck for him. That’s when the problems began. Weight problems ensued for Reeves, which led to chronic back problems. When the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, the back problems became too much to endure, and Reeves retired midseason.

2. Timofey Mozgov - C

It’s not often you get adjectives like “dreadful” and “indefensible” to describe a contract, but here we are with the 4 year, $64 million deal that Mozgov signed in 2016. It truly was ridiculous, and everyone with any connection to the NBA thought the same. Mozgov was nothing more than an average at best bench warmer, yet was LA’s biggest signing of that offseason. Mozgov was eventually “sent to Siberia” (he plays professionally in Russia), and to this day the deal remains a head scratcher.

1. Jayson Williams - PF/C

In 1998, Jayson Williams signed a 6 year, $86 million deal with the New Jersey Nets, a huge deal for the time. He promptly proceeded to only play 30 games before breaking his leg when he collided with his own teammate. The break was so bad that he had to have career-ending surgery to repair it. The Nets ended up paying him for four years of it even though he didn’t play so much as one season. Bad deal all around.

There’s your ten, but with the way money is thrown around in the league like a glorified game of Monopoly, there are sure to be more terrible deals in the coming years.

Be sure to check out the latest NBA betting lines on 888Sport and see if you can earn as much as some of the guys on this list!

*Credit to the main photo of this article belongs to Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press