the average nba pay
basketball image by aline caldwell from Fotolia.com. The average salary for a National Basketball Association player is $5.84 million, according to a July 2009 NBA news release announcing the salary cap for the 2009-10 season. This marks the fifth straight year that annual salaries exceeded $5 million. Since the NBA instituted its salary cap prior to the 1984-85 season, the average has risen steadily, making only one slight drop, from one season to the next.