Nigerian-born Greek NBA player Giannis Antetokounmpo made Forbes’ list of the top 10 highest-paid athletes in 2022 at just 28 years old.
Antetokounmpo began his professional basketball career in 2011 with the Filathlitikos senior men’s team in the Greek B Basket League. Since then, he has made a name for himself as one of the most decorated players in NBA history.
In 2017, he received the Most Improved Player award and has since been selected as an All-Star six times, including being selected as an All-Star captain in 2019 and 2020. In 2019 and 2022, he won consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, making him just the third player in NBA history to win two MVPs before turning 26, alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James.
Antetokounmpo’s impressive performance led him to sign a five-year, $228-million supermax extension with the Milwaukee Bucks in December 2020. The contract, along with endorsement deals with Nike, 2K Sports, and Kraken, contributed to his $80.9 million in earnings in 2022.
The Nigerian-born athlete is one of four Black athletes on Forbes’ list of the top 10 highest-paid athletes, alongside LeBron James and Kevin Durant, who together earned a total of $992 million in 2022. Antetokounmpo is the only member of the top ten who is still in his 20s, as Brazilian football superstar, Neymar turns 30 in February.
Forbes’ earnings estimates include both on-field and off-field earnings.
The on-field earnings for this list include all prize money, salaries, and bonuses earned between May 1, 2021 and May 1, 2022. Off-field earnings figures are estimates of sponsorship deals, appearance fees, memorabilia, and licensing income for the 12 months leading up to May 1, 2022, as well as cash returns from any businesses operated by the athlete, based on conversations with industry insiders.
In addition to his basketball career, Antetokounmpo has made investments in a number of ventures. He was among the investors in the $165-million funding round for the timepiece resale platform WatchBox announced in November.
He has also signed a licensing deal with NFT platform NFTSTAR and added WhatsApp and Google’s Pixel 6 phone to his endorsement stable. His life story will soon be depicted in the biopic Rise, set to be released on Disney+ in June.
