After Earning AT LEAST $600 Million During His Career, Russell Westbrook Announces His Retirement From The NBA

Russell Westbrook's NBA career is officially over.

Earlier today, the former MVP announced his retirement after 18 seasons, bringing to a close one of the most statistically outrageous careers in basketball history. Westbrook retires as a nine-time All-Star, former league MVP, two-time scoring champion, three-time assists leader, Olympic gold medalist, member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team and, perhaps most famously, the NBA's all-time leader with 209 triple-doubles.

And he also retires extremely, extremely rich.

Between NBA salaries, endorsement contracts, appearance fees and business ventures, Russell Westbrook generated roughly $600 million in gross career earnings during his 18 years in the league.

About $350 million came directly from NBA teams. The rest came largely from an endorsement portfolio highlighted by one of the biggest sneaker contracts in basketball history.

$350 Million Just For Playing Basketball

Westbrook entered the NBA as the fourth overall pick in the 2008 draft and spent his first 11 seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder before embarking on an unusually nomadic second half of his career.

He eventually collected paychecks from Oklahoma City, Houston, Washington, the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah, the Los Angeles Clippers, Denver and Sacramento. His total NBA salary earnings came to $349,531,249.

And the distribution of that money is pretty remarkable.

Westbrook earned roughly $167 million during his years under contract with Oklahoma City. The Lakers paid him more than $75 million. Washington was responsible for roughly $40 million, Houston for $37 million and Utah for more than $18 million, despite Westbrook never actually playing a game for the Jazz. The final stages of his career produced comparatively tiny checks from the Clippers, Nuggets and Kings. His final Sacramento contract still paid approximately $3.6 million.

One Insane Month In 2017

If you want to understand just how valuable Westbrook became at his financial peak, look at September 2017.

Westbrook was coming off an extraordinary season in which he averaged a triple-double and won the NBA MVP award.

On September 12, he agreed to a 10-year extension with Jordan Brand. The exact financial terms were never publicly disclosed, but it was widely reported to be the most lucrative total endorsement contract Jordan Brand had ever given an athlete. The deal was designed to run through the 2025–26 NBA season and included Westbrook signature shoes.

Then, just over two weeks later, Westbrook signed another historic deal.

On September 29, he agreed to a five-year, $205 million supermax extension with Oklahoma City. Including the $28 million he was already owed for the 2017–18 season, the agreement put approximately $233 million in guaranteed NBA salary in front of him. At the time, it was the richest contract in NBA history.

In the span of about 17 days, Russell Westbrook signed what was then the richest Jordan Brand endorsement deal ever and the largest NBA contract ever. Not a bad month!

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Another $200+ Million Off The Court

Westbrook's Jordan deal was only one part of his commercial empire.

Over the years, he signed endorsement agreements and partnerships with brands including Nike's Jordan Brand and Pepsi, launched his own fashion label, Honor the Gift, and invested in a variety of businesses.

In 2023, Forbes took a close look at Westbrook's finances and came up with an extremely useful benchmark. At that point, 15 seasons into his career, Forbes calculated that Westbrook had earned more than $336 million from NBA salaries and nearly $200 million from endorsements and other off-court ventures.

And he wasn't finished.

Westbrook played three additional NBA seasons after that estimate, while his enormous Jordan Brand agreement was scheduled to continue through the 2025–26 season.

So even using fairly conservative assumptions for those final years, it's reasonable to estimate that Westbrook ultimately generated somewhere around $225–250 million off the court during his time as an NBA player.

Add that to $349.5 million in NBA salary and you arrive at approximately $575–600+ million in career earnings.

From $47 Million A Year To The League Minimum

There is another fascinating aspect of Westbrook's financial career.

At his peak, he was one of the highest-paid basketball players alive. During his final season under the supermax contract, Westbrook exercised a player option worth approximately $47.1 million.

A couple of seasons later, he signed with Denver for just $3.3 million, the veteran minimum.

The drop from his peak salary to the Denver minimum was the largest pay cut ever taken by a professional basketball player. Yet by then, it hardly mattered financially. Westbrook had already banked hundreds of millions of dollars.

A $300 Million Fortune

When he entered the league in 2008, he was a 19-year-old guard who had spent much of his freshman season at UCLA coming off the bench.

He leaves 18 years later with 209 triple-doubles, an MVP trophy, roughly $350 million in NBA salary, perhaps another $250 million earned away from basketball… We currently estimate Russell Westbrook's net worth at $300 million. Not a bad way to walk away from a career!