Professional sports is one of the few businesses where someone with a high six-figure salary can be considered grossly underpaid.
And it might just be the only industry in the entire world where a $14 million salary makes you the most underpaid person in your entire field—by a long shot.
Elite pro athletes’ multimillion-dollar salaries have long drawn the scorn of people who think that millions of dollars are ridiculous sums given to people “who are just playing a game.”
But they have a tremendous value to their teams and to their communities. There's no other profession where a person can help generate millions more than their salary in ticket sales, merchandise, and television ratings. Doctors may save lives and LeBron James may just be playing a game, but could a doctor have as big of an economic impact as LeBron? Don’t think so.
So, millions of dollars for someone who can do all that is definitely not too much. In fact, some of sports’ brightest stars and millionaires deserve to be making way more for their contributions on the court, the gridiron, and the diamond. With all salary figures courtesy of spotrac.com, here are 13 grossly underpaid athletes.