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: Rank Name Sport Nation Total Salary / Winnings Endorsements Cristiano Ronaldo Football Portugal $93 million $58 million $35 million LeBron James Basketball United States $86.2 million $31.2 million $55 million Lionel Messi Football Argentina $80 million $53 million $27 million Roger Federer Tennis Switzerland $64 million $6 million $58 million 5 Kevin Durant Basketball United States $60.6 million $26.6 million $34 million 6 Andrew Luck American football United States $50 million $47 million $3 million 6 Rory McIlroy Golf Northern Ireland $50 million $16 million $34 million 8 Stephen Curry Basketball United States $47.3 million $12.3 million $35 million 9 James Harden Basketball United States $46.6 million $26.6 million $20 million 10 Lewis Hamilton Auto racing England $46 million $38 million $8 million

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: Antarctica continued to become more isolated and finally developed a permanent ice cap. Mountain building in western North America continued, and the Alps started to rise in Europe as the African plate continued to push north into the Eurasian plate, isolating the remnants of Tethys Sea. A brief marine incursion marks the early Oligocene in Europe. There appears to have been a land bridge in the early Oligocene between North America and Europe since the faunas of the two regions are very similar. During the Oligocene, South America was finally detached from Antarctica and drifted north toward North America. It also allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to flow, rapidly cooling the continent.

paragraph_text: Longmire became the ``highest - rated original drama series of all time ''on A&E; however, following the conclusion of the third season in August 2014, the network announced that it would not renew the series. Warner Horizon Television offered it to other networks and Netflix picked it up, starting with season four. Netflix released the sixth and final season on November 17, 2017. Episodes of all six seasons are available for streaming and viewing online via Netflix in North America.

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: The Mayflower Steps are close to the site in the Barbican area of Plymouth, south - west England, from which the Pilgrim Fathers are believed to have finally left England aboard the Mayflower, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to settle in North America on 6 September 1620. The traditional site of their disembarkation in North America is Plymouth Rock.

paragraph_text: Historically the particular routes were also shaped by the powerful influence of winds and currents during the age of sail. For example, from the main trading nations of Western Europe it was much easier to sail westwards after first going south of 30 N latitude and reaching the so - called ``trade winds ''; thus arriving in the Caribbean rather than going straight west to the North American mainland. Returning from North America, it is easiest to follow the Gulf Stream in a northeasterly direction using the westerlies. A similar triangle to this, called the volta do mar was already being used by the Portuguese, before Christopher Columbus' voyage, to sail to the Canary Islands and the Azores. Columbus simply expanded the triangle outwards, and his route became the main way for Europeans to reach, and return from, the Americas.

paragraph_text: Mount Mitchell is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak in mainland eastern North America. It is located near Burnsville in Yancey County, North Carolina, in the Black Mountain subrange of the Appalachians, and about 19 miles (31 km) northeast of Asheville. It is protected by Mount Mitchell State Park and surrounded by the Pisgah National Forest. Mount Mitchell's elevation is 6,684 feet (2,037 m) above sea level.

paragraph_text: As the 1990s dawned, gamers predicted that competition from technologically superior systems such as the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive/Genesis would mean the immediate end of the NES’s dominance. Instead, during the first year of Nintendo's successor console the Super Famicom (named Super Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan), the Famicom remained the second highest-selling video game console in Japan, outselling the newer and more powerful NEC PC Engine and Sega Mega Drive by a wide margin. The console remained popular in Japan and North America until late 1993, when the demand for new NES software abruptly plummeted. The final Famicom game released in Japan is Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima IV (Adventure Island IV), while in North America, Wario's Woods is the final licensed game. In the wake of ever decreasing sales and the lack of new software titles, Nintendo of America officially discontinued the NES by 1995. However, Nintendo kept producing new Famicom units in Japan until September 25, 2003, and continued to repair Famicom consoles until October 31, 2007, attributing the discontinuation of support to insufficient supplies of parts.

paragraph_text: In 2006 -- 07, James's averages declined to 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. Some analysts attributed the fall to a regression in his passing skills and shot selection, which stemmed from a lack of effort and focus. The Cavaliers finished the season with 50 wins for the second consecutive year and entered the playoffs as the East's second seed. In Game 5 of the NBA Conference Finals, James notched 48 points with 9 rebounds and 7 assists, scoring 29 of Cleveland's last 30 points, including the game - winning layup with two seconds left, against the Pistons. After the game, play - by - play announcer Marv Albert called the performance ``one of the greatest moments in postseason history ''and color commentator Steve Kerr described it as`` Jordan-esque''. In 2012, ESPN ranked the performance the fourth greatest in modern NBA playoff history. The Cavaliers went on to win Game 6 and claim their first - ever Eastern Conference championship, earning them a matchup with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. During the championship round, James struggled, averaging 22 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game on just 35.6 percent shooting, and Cleveland was eliminated in a sweep.

paragraph_text: Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes of North America. The lake is shared by the Canadian province of Ontario to the north, the US state of Minnesota to the west, and Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the south. It is generally considered the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. It is the world's third - largest freshwater lake by volume and the largest by volume in North America. The furthest north and west of the Great Lakes chain, Superior has the highest elevation and drains into the St. Mary's River.

paragraph_text: SportsCentury is an ESPN biography program that reviews the people and athletic events that defined sports in North America throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Using stock footage, on-camera interviews, and photographs of their athletic lives, who grew up.

paragraph_text: The northern supercontinent of Laurasia began to break up, as Europe, Greenland and North America drifted apart. In western North America, mountain building started in the Eocene, and huge lakes formed in the high flat basins among uplifts. In Europe, the Tethys Sea finally vanished, while the uplift of the Alps isolated its final remnant, the Mediterranean, and created another shallow sea with island archipelagos to the north. Though the North Atlantic was opening, a land connection appears to have remained between North America and Europe since the faunas of the two regions are very similar. India continued its journey away from Africa and began its collision with Asia, creating the Himalayan orogeny.

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: The Queen opened the stadium on 18 July 1997 in front of 30,000 spectators. By this time the south west corner, which stood between the main stand and the horseshoe, had been completed. The interest from potential corporate clients had been so high that Pickering pressed the board to go the full distance with the stadium, raising the final initial costs of completing the stadium to £22 million. Work was still in progress on the remaining corner on the opening day, leaving Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to jokingly ask Taylor Woodrow contract manager Ross Walters, ``Have n't you been paid yet? ''An overture to the opening ceremony came two weeks later, on 4 August 1997, with the first ever game at Pride Park Stadium being played against Italian side Sampdoria, the match ending in a 1 -- 0 defeat with Vincenzo Montella scoring the only goal of the game. The attendance of 29,041 was the highest for a Derby County home game in 20 years. The fixture kicked off a tradition of pre-season friendlies being held against European teams at the ground, with Barcelona (twice), CSKA Moscow, Athletic Bilbao, Lazio, Ajax and Mallorca all visiting the stadium over the next six years.

paragraph_text: "Going to America" is the series finale of the Channel 4 sitcom "Father Ted". It is the eighth episode of the third series, and the 25th episode overall. The show's star Dermot Morgan died the day after filming was completed.

paragraph_text: Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia, 32% in Europe, and 16% in North America, 1% in Australasia and 1% in Africa. 40% of all the robots in the world are in Japan, making Japan the country with the highest number of robots.

paragraph_text: Monsters, Inc. ranked number 1 at the box office on its opening weekend, grossing $62,577,067 in North America alone. The film had a small drop-off of 27.2% over its second weekend, earning another $45,551,028. In its third weekend, the film experienced a larger decline of 50.1%, placing itself in the second position just after Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In its fourth weekend, however, there was an increase of 5.9%, making $24,055,001 that weekend for a combined total of over $525 million. As of May 2013, it is the eighth-biggest fourth weekend ever for a film.The film made $289,916,256 in North America, and $287,509,478 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $577,425,734. The film is Pixar's ninth highest-grossing film worldwide and sixth in North America. For a time, the film surpassed Toy Story 2 as the second highest-grossing animated film of all time, only behind 1994's The Lion King.In the U.K., Ireland, and Malta, it earned £37,264,502 ($53,335,579) in total, marking the sixth highest-grossing animated film of all time in the country and the thirty-second highest-grossing film of all time. In Japan, although earning $4,471,902 during its opening and ranking second behind The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for the weekend, it moved to first place on subsequent weekends due to exceptionally small decreases or even increases and dominated for six weeks at the box office. It finally reached $74,437,612, standing as 2001's third highest-grossing film and the third largest U.S. animated feature of all time in the country behind Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo.

paragraph_text: Fern Hobbs (May 8, 1883 – April 10, 1964) was an American attorney in the U.S. state of Oregon, and Private Secretary to Oregon Governor Oswald West. She was noted for her ambition and several accomplishments as a young woman, and became the highest-paid woman in public service in America in her mid-twenties.

Question: When did the highest paid athlete in North America first go to the finals?
Answer: 2006 -- 07