There are no NBA players getting paid $25K a year. The NBA minimum salary for a rookie is currently over $500K a year and around $1M a year for a veteran with

There are no NBA players getting paid $25K a year. The NBA minimum salary for a rookie is currently over $500K a year and around $1M a year for a veteran with at least 4 years experience. The $25K salary figure is misleading because they are taking into account extremely short term contracts for a handful of games. If you ride the bench for an 82 game season, you are making a lot of money, and you literally cannot make less than the number in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement. Bench players are valuable assets. Your starters practice against them even if they don't play, and there are some guys who are talented but not up to the task of playing 30+ minutes a game for various reasons.