During his time in the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal was not known for leaving money on the table during negotiations to help his teams out. Unlike the Dirk Nowitzkis of the world, O’Neal wasn’t for giving his team handouts, instead choosing to make every penny possible, which he was well within his right to do, as he pretty much always lived up to his max contracts.
Well, our research confirms the idea that O’Neal drove a hard bargain during his time in the NBA, as we found that the Big Aristotle owned the biggest share of team payrolls in the NBA over the past 40 years, even after we factored in the first four seasons of his career in which he was on his rookie-scale contract, and the last campaign of his career when he was on a minimum deal.
Regardless, you can easily make the argument that O’Neal was worth every dollar since the big man had one of the most illustrious careers in NBA history, one headlined by his winning four NBA championships, three Finals MVPs, one regular-season MVP and his making 15 All-Star appearances and 14 All-NBA teams.
According to our research, other NBA stars come close to O’Neal in this exercise, namely David Robinson and Michael Jordan, who took up large shares of their teams’ payrolls throughout their careers. Jordan actually finished No. 3 on this list, but that’s largely because of the two final years of his deal with the Bulls, which were the biggest salaries in NBA history if we adjust to inflation.
Below, check out the NBA players who took the largest share of team payrolls throughout their careers.
