paragraph_text: The highest - paid NBA players by season over the past twelve seasons have received contracts with salaries noted in the twenty - million - dollar range. In this twelve - year span, Kevin Garnett received $28,000,000, which was the highest salary payment of any NBA player, during the 2003 -- 04 season. Garnett has been the highest - paid NBA player per year in seven of the past twelve NBA seasons. Michael Jordan was the first NBA player to sign a contract worth over thirty million dollars in a season. During the 1997 -- 98 season, Jordan earned $33,140,000, which still stands as the most any NBA player has earned on a 1 year contract, Jordan also holds the record for the second largest 1 year contract at $30,140,000 in the 96 - 97 season... Kobe Bryant become just the second player to reach this milestone when the 2013 -- 14 season began. LeBron James became the third in the 2016 -- 17 season. Stephen Curry became the first player to eclipse $40 - Million per year when he signed a record 5 - year contract worth $201 - Million in 2017, starting with $34,682,550 in the 2017 - 18 season and ending with the largest earnings in the 2021 - 22 season with a record payout of $45,780,966.

paragraph_text: The number of forty - plus point games players accumulate over their careers is often reported in media. Bryant has played 135 games in which he has scored 40 or more points; of these, 6 were 60 - plus point games and 26 were 50 - plus point games. He is third behind Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan, who scored 40 or more in 284 and 211 games, respectively. In 2003, Bryant scored 40 points or more in nine consecutive games, tying Jordan, who accomplished the same feat in the 1986 -- 87 season. The only player with longer streaks of 40 or more is Chamberlain, who had 14 consecutive games twice in the 1961 -- 62 season and 10 consecutive games in the 1962 -- 63 season. In 2006, Bryant scored a career - high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. It was the second - highest number of points scored in a game in NBA history, behind only Chamberlain's 100 - point performance in 1962. In 2007, Bryant scored 50 points or more in four consecutive games; this accomplishment is fifth in NBA history behind streaks by Chamberlain, who had 50 or more in seven, six and five (twice) consecutive games in the 1961 -- 62 season. Bryant has also played 12 playoff games in which he has scored forty or more points. Out of the 134 games, 21 resulted in Bryant notching a double - double and 42 resulted in losses. Bryant became the oldest player to score 60 + points (60) in his final game on April 13, 2016.

paragraph_text: Number Date Opponent Box Score Minutes played Points Field goals Three - point field goals Free throws Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks Notes 000000002014 - 03 - 03 - 0000 March 3, 2014 vs Charlotte Bobcats W 124 -- 107 41: 12 61 22 -- 33 8 -- 10 9 -- 12 7 0 0

paragraph_text: The highest - paid NBA players by season over the past twelve seasons have received contracts with salaries noted in the twenty - million - dollar range. In this twelve - year span, Kevin Garnett received $28,000,000, which was the highest salary payment of any NBA player, during the 2003 -- 04 season. Garnett has been the highest - paid NBA player per year in seven of the past twelve NBA seasons. Michael Jordan was the first NBA player to sign a contract worth over thirty million dollars in a season. During the 1997 -- 98 season, Jordan earned $33,000,000. Kobe Bryant become just the second player to reach this milestone when the 2013 -- 14 season began. LeBron James became the third in the 2016 -- 17 season. Stephen Curry became the first player to eclipse $40 - Million per year when he signed a record 5 year contract worth $201 - Million in 2017.

paragraph_text: The highest - paid NBA players by season over the past twelve seasons have received contracts with salaries noted in the twenty - million - dollar range. In this twelve - year span, Kevin Garnett received $28,000,000, which was the highest salary payment of any NBA player, during the 2003 -- 04 season. Garnett has been the highest - paid NBA player per year in seven of the past twelve NBA seasons. Michael Jordan was the first NBA player to sign a contract worth over thirty million dollars in a season. During the 1997 -- 98 season, Jordan earned $33,000,000. Kobe Bryant become just the second player to reach this milestone when the 2013 -- 14 season began. LeBron James became the third in the 2016 -- 17 season. Stephen Curry became the first player to eclipse $40 - Million per year when he signed a record 5 - year contract worth $201 - Million in 2017.

paragraph_text: Points Player Date Team Opponent Final score FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA Notes 100 Wilt Chamberlain * March 2, 1962 Philadelphia Warriors New York Knicks 169 -- 147 36 63 -- -- 28 32 Chamberlain is the only NBA player to score 100 points in a single game. He also grabbed 25 rebounds in the performance.

paragraph_text: Wilt Chamberlain holds the all - time records for total points scored (4,029) and points per game (50.4) in a season; both records were achieved in the 1961 -- 62 season. He also holds the rookie records for points per game when he averaged 37.6 points in the 1959 -- 60 season. Among active players, Kevin Durant has the highest point total (2,593) and the highest scoring average (32.0) in a season; both were achieved in the 2013 -- 14 season.

paragraph_text: Additionally, several of the players on this list played during an era when college freshmen were ineligible to compete at the varsity level and were forced to participate on either freshman or junior varsity teams. Since freshman and junior varsity points do not count toward official NCAA records, three players -- Pete Maravich, Oscar Robertson and Elvin Hayes -- only had three seasons to compile their totals. Larry Bird redshirted (sat out) his freshman year, and therefore, like Maravich, Robertson, and Hayes, his totals also cover only three seasons. With the added benefits of a three - point line and a full extra year of varsity eligibility, their already - historical statistics would have been much higher. Maravich, a guard from LSU, not only owns the three highest single season averages in Division I history, but also the highest career total. Remarkably, he scored 3,667 points (over 400 more than the next closest player) in a mere 83 games. His record is generally considered unbreakable; the only player who could have potentially overtaken him as the top scorer in Division I history is Stephen Curry of Davidson, who had scored 2,635 points through his first three seasons of college basketball. However, Curry opted to forgo his final year of NCAA eligibility and moved on to the National Basketball Association (NBA) following his junior season in 2008 -- 09.

paragraph_text: Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include six NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten scoring titles (both all - time records), five MVP Awards, ten All - NBA First Team designations, nine All - Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All - Star Game selections, three All - Star Game MVP Awards, three steals titles, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game). In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press' list of athletes of the century. Jordan is a two - time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, having been enshrined in 2009 for his individual career, and again in 2010 as part of the group induction of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team (``The Dream Team ''). He became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015.

paragraph_text: This feat has been accomplished 67 times in NBA history. Twenty - three different players have scored 60 or more points in a game. Only four players have scored 60 or more points on more than one occasion: Wilt Chamberlain (32 times), Kobe Bryant (6 times), Michael Jordan (5 times), and Elgin Baylor (4 times).

paragraph_text: At 21 years and 197 days, Durant is the youngest scoring leader in NBA history, averaging 30.1 points in the 2009 -- 10 season. The most recent champion is Russell Westbrook, who averaged a career - high 31.6 points in the 2016 -- 17 season.

paragraph_text: A Portuguese international, Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all - time by the Portuguese Football Federation in 2015. Ronaldo made his senior international debut in August 2003, at age 18. He is Portugal's most capped player of all - time with over 140 caps, and has participated in seven major tournaments. He is Portugal's all - time top goalscorer. He scored his first international goal at Euro 2004 and helped Portugal reach the final. He took over full captaincy in July 2008, leading Portugal to their first - ever triumph in a major tournament by winning Euro 2016, and received the Silver Boot as the second - highest goalscorer of the tournament. One of the most marketable sportsmen, he was ranked the world's highest - paid athlete by Forbes in 2016 and 2017, as well as the world's most famous athlete by ESPN in 2016 and 2017.

paragraph_text: Player Salary Team LeBron James $30,963,450 Cleveland Cavaliers Al Horford $26,540,100 Boston Celtics DeMar DeRozan $26,540,100 Toronto Raptors James Harden $26,540,100 Houston Rockets Kevin Durant $26,540,100 Golden State Warriors Russell Westbrook $26,540,100 Oklahoma City Thunder Mike Conley, Jr. $26,540,100 Memphis Grizzlies Dirk Nowitzki $25,000,000 Dallas Mavericks Carmelo Anthony $24,559,380 New York Knicks Damian Lillard $24,328,425 Portland Trail Blazers

paragraph_text: Tony Windis (born January 27, 1933) is a former NBA basketball player for the Detroit Pistons. Windis played college basketball at the University of Wyoming, where he ranks 2nd all time in the school's career scoring average with 21.2 ppg. He was drafted with the second pick in the fifth round of the 1959 NBA Draft. He appeared in nine games for the Detroit Pistons in the 1959-60 NBA season and he averaged 4.0 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game and 3.6 assists per game.

paragraph_text: Lancaster Gordon (born June 24, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round (8th pick overall) of the 1984 NBA Draft. A 6'3" guard from the University of Louisville, Gordon was selected as the Most Valuable Player in the 1983 NCAA Mideast Regional, and went on to play four NBA seasons for the Clippers from 1984 to 1988. In his career, Gordon played in 201 games and scored a total of 1,125 points. Gordon also played parts of three seasons in the Continental Basketball Association from 1988 to 1991. He averaged 8.2 points per game in 39 games for the Pensacola Tornados, La Crosse Catbirds and Sioux Falls Skyforce.

paragraph_text: The highest - paid NBA players by season over the past twelve seasons have received contracts with salaries noted in the twenty - million - dollar range. In this twelve - year span, Kevin Garnett received $28,000,000, which was the highest salary payment of any NBA player, during the 2003 -- 04 season. Garnett has been the highest - paid NBA player per year in seven of the past twelve NBA seasons. Michael Jordan was the first NBA player to sign a contract worth over thirty million dollars in a season. During the 1997 -- 98 season, Jordan earned $33,140,000, which still stands as the most any NBA player has earned on a 1 year contract, Jordan also holds the record for the second largest 1 year contract at $30,140,000 in the 1996 - 97 season. Kobe Bryant become just the second player to reach this milestone when the 2013 -- 14 season began. LeBron James became the third in the 2016 -- 17 season. Stephen Curry became the first player to eclipse $40 - Million per year when he signed a record 5 - year contract worth $201 - Million in 2017, starting with $34,682,550 in the 2017 - 18 season and ending with the largest earnings in the 2021 - 22 season with a record payout of $45,780,966.

paragraph_text: Bryant currently ranks third both on the league's all - time post-season scoring and all - time regular season scoring lists. He has been selected to 15 All - NBA Team (eleven times to the All - NBA First Team) and 12 All - Defensive Team (nine times to the All - Defensive First Team). He was selected to play in the NBA All - Star Game on 18 occasions, winning All - Star MVP Awards in 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011 (he shared the 2009 award with Shaquille O'Neal). He also won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1997. He has had 1 eighty - point game, 6 sixty - point games (including his final game), 26 fifty - point games, and 134 forty - point games in his career. Kobe had been also in a three way tie with Stephen Curry and Donyell Marshall for most three pointers with 12 in a game until November 8, 2016 when Curry set a new record with 13. In his final game on April 13, 2016, at 37 years old, he became the oldest player to score 60 in a single game and set the highest point total in the 2015 - 16 regular season.

paragraph_text: This feat has been accomplished 68 times in NBA history. Twenty - five different players have scored 60 or more points in a game. Only four players have scored 60 or more points on more than one occasion: Wilt Chamberlain (32 times), Kobe Bryant (6 times), Michael Jordan (5 times), and Elgin Baylor (4 times). Chamberlain holds the single - game scoring record, having scored 100 points in a game in 1962.

paragraph_text: Aces are scored at 1 point, face cards at 10, and all other cards are scored at their numerical values. The number of points awarded for bonuses may vary from region to region. No matter what the bonus amounts are, points are scored in Gin for the following:

paragraph_text: Wilt Chamberlain set the single - game scoring record in the National Basketball Association (NBA) by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 169 -- 147 win over the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, at Hershey Sports Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It is widely considered one of the greatest records in basketball. Chamberlain set five other league records that game including most free throws made, a notable achievement, as he was regarded as a poor free throw shooter. The teams broke the record for most combined points in a game (316). That season, Chamberlain averaged a record 50.4 points per game, and he had broken the NBA single - game scoring record (71) earlier in the season in December with 78 points. The third - year center had already set season scoring records in his first two seasons. In the fourth quarter, the Knicks began fouling other players to keep the ball away from Chamberlain, and they also became deliberate on offense to reduce the number of possessions for Philadelphia. The Warriors countered by committing fouls of their own to get the ball back.

Question: What was the most points per game scored by the highest paid NBA player in 2016?
Answer: 61