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NBA Players Who Turned Down the Bag: The Wildest Contracts and Paydays They Said No To

Author

Jatin Hasija
August 22, 2025

Welcome to Buckets and Riches — where NBA stars don’t just shoot threes, they stack Gs. From tunnel fits worth mortgages to endorsement empires and crypto hiccups, we break down how basketball’s elite earn it, flex it, and sometimes… brick it. 🏀💸

The latest edition of our newsletter covers:

  • Schroder Fumbled the Bag Hard

  • Boogie Bet on the Max and Lost

  • Sprewell Said “No” for Family

  • Noel Said No to $70M

💸Gambled Away A Bag

From $84 Million to a Veteran Minimum, Dennis Schroder’s Costly Misread

The world has celebrated many stories of people who have bet on themselves and won. Sylvester Stallone once famously refused to sell his Rocky script unless he was allowed to star as the titular southpaw. He was so poor that he had to sell his dog, yet he still held firm to his belief in himself. And in the end, it all turned out well after he became one of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Joe Flacco, still kicking it as the Opening Day starter for the Cleveland Browns, refused to settle for a contract extension with the Baltimore Ravens that didn’t reflect his worth in 2012. He then went out and posted the best start-to-finish playoff performance a quarterback has ever had with the Ravens, and won the Super Bowl that season. He signed the richest contract in NFL history a few weeks later.

We know these stories because they’re inspirational, feel-good examples of people being rewarded for self-belief. We try to ignore the many examples on the other side of the coin, when someone bets on themselves and loses. A bet is a gamble, after all, and losing, unfortunately, comes with the territory. Such was the case with Dennis Schröder.

The Atlanta Hawks drafted Schröder with the 17th pick in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft. He played five seasons in Atlanta, increasing his points per game each year and becoming a full-time starter in his last two. After that, he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he finished second in the 2019-2020 Sixth Man of the Year race as one of the league’s best subs.

The Lakers traded for Schröder after winning the 2020 bubble title. In his one season in LA, he started all 61 games he played and averaged a career high in minutes. After it was reported that the team offered him a four-year, $84 million deal, Schröder seemed to be very much part of the Lakers’ long-term plans as an important piece around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Shockingly, Schröder turned down the offer only to find out that the grass wasn’t greener on the other side. Despite being a very solid player, no market materialized for his services, and in the end, he took a one-year deal to flip sides in the NBA’s greatest rivalry, signing with the Boston Celtics for a comparatively paltry $5.9 million.

Schröder has since said that it was his agent’s fault that the Lakers' offer was rejected. He told Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports last year, “I would never just leave money on the table. My mom didn’t raise me that way.”

Schröder’s bag fumble may seem like a sour end to his story, but he hasn’t let it define him. He’s bounced around the league, never staying with the Celtics, Houston Rockets, Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, or Detroit Pistons for more than two years.

He’s been a quality player at every stop, and he’s still managed to pull in over $100 million in career earnings. Schröder even returned to the Lakers for the 2022-23 season and led Germany to the FIBA World Cup title two years ago.

Schröder was traded yet again this offseason, from the Pistons to the Sacramento Kings, and he signed a three-year, $45 million deal in the process. It may not have looked like it five years ago, but things have worked out well for him in the end. Sometimes you gamble and lose, and sometimes you get another stack of chips and come back to win.

💰 A Costly Bet

From All-NBA to Uninsured: The Gamble That Changed DeMarcus Cousins’ Career

From his rookie season in 2010-11 to his last of four All-Star selections in 2018, DeMarcus Cousins was one of the very best big men in the NBA. A dominating post presence with a smooth shooting stroke and excellent defensive versatility, Boogie was a player ahead of his time.

Cousins was paid well for his services, making over $80 million from the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans, the first two teams he played for. It looked like he was going to cash in even further with a max contract. However, he tore his Achilles tendon in January of 2018, and everything changed.

A supermax extension back then would have been in the neighborhood of $175 million, but that kind of contract was off the table once he got hurt. It was rumored that the Pelicans extended him a two-year, $40 million offer as he was rehabbing his injury. Cousins turned it down to go to Golden State on a one-year, $5.3 million prove-it deal.

Cousins denied ever being offered two years and $40 million when he appeared on The Draymond Green Show last year. He said that, although the Pelicans did reach out to him after his Achilles surgery, “We never had a conversation about a deal in general, no numbers, no years, anything was offered.”

Cousins debuted for the Warriors just before the first anniversary of his Achilles tear, and, though he had a smaller role in Golden State than in New Orleans and Sacramento, he still averaged over 16 points in just under 26 minutes per game. 

Boogie helped the Warriors earn the No. 1 seed in the West that year. But unfortunately, the injury bug hit again, this time with a torn quad in the first round of the playoffs. The Warriors were able to make it to the NBA Finals without him, but fell short against the Toronto Raptors as they failed to overcome their mounting injury toll, which included Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, both of whom went down in the Finals.

Cousins didn’t get a ring, and he never signed a big contract again. His incredible streak of bad luck continued that summer when he tore his ACL at the LA Lakers camp (in the same leg that the Achilles and quad injuries occurred in). Though he did make $3.5 million, the injury kept him from playing that season.

Cousins never did suit up for the Lakers, but he did receive a ring when LeBron James and Anthony Davis led the Purple and Gold to victory in the NBA bubble. From then on, Cousins bounced around the league from the Houston Rockets to the LA Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Denver Nuggets, playing a total of just 89 games for those four teams combined. 

He pulled in about $5.5 million in those final seasons, which, while nothing to sneeze at, still pales in comparison to the deal he could have landed had he not gotten hurt.

💸 Moneyball Moments

In 2020, James Harden rejected a 2-year, $100 million extension from the Rockets, making him the first player ever offered $50 million per season. He wanted out instead. Since then? Three teams, no Finals appearances, and no new max deal.

💰Family First

Latrell Sprewell Said No to $21M… and the NBA Said Goodbye

Latrell Sprewell’s NBA story was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. The highs included being named a four-time All-Star and helping the Minnesota Timberwolves have one of the franchise’s best runs ever. 

He, alongside Kevin Garnett and Sam Cassell, brought the Wolves to the Western Conference Finals in 2004. Unfortunately, an infamous decision he made outweighs the greatness he achieved on the hardwood, one that’s still being laughed at two decades later.

Following the WCF run in 2004, Minnesota put a three-year, $21 million extension on the table for Spree. He turned it down because, in his own words, “I’ve got a family to feed.”

That line instantly went down in NBA folklore. The Star Tribune quoted him doubling down: “Why would I want to help them win a title? They’re not doing anything for me. I’m at risk. I got my family to feed. Anything could happen.”

The public response was about as brutal as you can imagine. The New Yorker claimed that the Knicks legend’s quote “has been the gift that keeps on giving to every moralizing sports writer in America.” 

Sprewell’s gamble didn’t just backfire. It detonated his career. The 2004-05 season ended up being his worst. When the Wolves let him walk, no other team offered anywhere close to what he wanted. 

Denver, Houston, and even Cleveland sniffed around, but nothing stuck. His own agent, Bob Gist, admitted the situation was bleak: “To go from being offered $7 million to taking $1 million, that would be a slap in the face. Latrell doesn’t need the money that badly,” stated Gist to Sports Illustrated.

By the mid-2000s, Spree was done. No retirement tour, no farewell season. He was just gone. And the money troubles piled up fast. Despite earning almost $100 million across his career, he ended up losing houses and yachts, and he even got sued for hundreds of millions. 

Fortunately, Latrell did bounce back and earn a comfortable position working in media relations for the New York Knicks, a team he dedicated most of his playing days to. He should be remembered for more than one quote. But the line, “I’ve got a family to feed,” overshadowed everything else and turned a star guard into a cautionary tale about ego, money, and knowing when to take the deal.

🏀 Fumbled The Funds

Nerlens Noel Said No to $70M, Then Blamed Rich Paul for the Fallout

Not every NBA player has the opportunity to earn a supermax contract. The league’s average salary in the 2024-25 season was $10.8 million. For role players like Nerlens Noel, that number is even less. He had the chance to change that, but he didn’t take advantage of it.

The 6-foot-10 big man had plenty of potential ahead of the 2013 NBA Draft, but didn’t quite live up to his ceiling with the Philadelphia 76ers. It didn’t take long for him to pivot his goals of stardom to excelling in a minimal role to stretch out his career. 

The Sixers eventually traded Noel in the 2016-17 season to the Dallas Mavericks. During his 22 games with the Mavs, the management loved what they saw. The following offseason, the team offered Noel a four-year deal worth $70 million. That type of money seemed heaven-sent, but Noel didn’t sign the contract.

At the time, the Kentucky product was a client of Rich Paul and Klutch Sports. Noel still had one more year on his contract before he became an unrestricted free agent in 2018. After several conversations, Paul convinced Noel to bet on himself, a gamble that wouldn’t pay out.

The 2017-18 season would be the worst season of Noel’s career. He would only play 30 games due to several injuries. The potential $17.5 million salary he could’ve had turned into a two-year, $3.75 million contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Paul’s impact on Noel’s contract negotiations created deep frustration inside the nine-year veteran's heart. And he sought legal action.

In 2021, Noel filed a $58 million lawsuit against Paul. The lawsuit claimed that Paul told the former sixth overall pick to decline the Mavericks’ contract offer while suggesting he “was a $100 million man.” Turns out Paul wasn’t able to secure that type of deal for Noel, which led to their relationship going down the drain.

That lawsuit would also not go Noel’s way. When the two parties settled their legal dispute in 2023, Noel agreed to pay the full fees owed to Paul on his $5 million contract with the New York Knicks, which he signed in 2020. Those fees totalled $200,000.

🏀 Shot Clock Back: NBA Stat of the Year

In 1999, Dennis Rodman was fined $68,000 for missing practice... to wrestle Hulk Hogan on WCW Monday Nitro. He played just 23 games that season for the Lakers. Turns out the Worm had other bookings.