The New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs meet for Game 2 of the NBA Finals tonight, June 5, 2026. The two rosters could not be built more differently. One is among the most expensive teams in the league. The other is anchored by a generational talent who is still, on paper, a bargain.
So before the tip, we pulled the 2025-26 contract figures from tracker Spotrac to see exactly who is getting paid — and who is wildly underpaid — in this series.
Who is the highest-paid player in the 2026 Finals?
That title belongs to a Knick: center Karl-Anthony Towns, who earns roughly $53.1 million this season, the largest check on either roster. He is not even close to alone in the eight figures.
Here is how New York’s top earners stack up in 2025-26, per Spotrac:
- Karl-Anthony Towns — about $53.1 million
- OG Anunoby — about $39.6 million
- Jalen Brunson — about $34.9 million
- Mikal Bridges — about $24.9 million
- Josh Hart — about $19.5 million
San Antonio’s payroll is led by guard De’Aaron Fox at roughly $37.1 million, followed by veteran forward Harrison Barnes at about $19 million. The Spurs sit well below the Knicks on total spending — and the reason is the man in the middle.
How much does the Knicks’ roster actually cost?
A lot. New York’s total team payroll runs about $211.7 million for 2025-26 — the second-highest in the NBA. Five players earn eight figures, and the franchise is paying deep into the luxury tax for the privilege.
The most interesting number on that list is Brunson’s. The point guard signed a four-year, $156.5 million extension that, as ESPN reported, came in roughly $113 million below the maximum he could have demanded. He took the discount so the Knicks could keep building around him — and that decision is a big reason New York could afford the rest of this Finals roster.
Why is Victor Wembanyama such a bargain?
Because the most dominant player in this series may also be the most underpaid. Wembanyama earns just $13.4 million in 2025-26, the standard figure for a player still on his rookie-scale contract.
For context, that is roughly a quarter of what Towns makes — for arguably the best two-way player on the floor. It is the kind of value window every contender chases, and it does not last. Wembanyama is in line for a maximum rookie extension reportedly worth around $251 million starting in 2026-27, a deal that could climb past $300 million with award incentives. Tonight, though, San Antonio is still getting him at the bargain rate.
That dynamic — a superstar on a cheap rookie deal — is exactly what makes young stars so valuable to a front office, the same math we broke down with Cooper Flagg’s rookie contract after this year’s draft.
What about the bonuses on top of salary?
Salary is not the only money in play tonight. Every Finals player also collects a slice of the league’s record playoff bonus pool, which reached $35.7 million this postseason and pays out more with every round a team survives.
For Wembanyama, a championship check worth several hundred thousand dollars would nearly rival a meaningful chunk of his base salary — a reminder of just how steep his pay gap really is. For Towns or Fox, it is a rounding error on a season’s earnings.
If you want the wider picture of how these paychecks compare across the league, our running breakdown of the NBA’s biggest earners shows where Finals stars rank against the highest-paid players in the game.
So here is the question for tonight: does the Knicks’ $211 million roster justify its price tag, or does Wembanyama’s bargain deal give the Spurs the smarter spend? Tell us which side you would back.
