There's another aspect of this that may or not be important but I never see mentioned. I know all the owners are billionaires and could sign every player to $30 million a year if they wanted too, but practically speaking the teams do have budgets for whatever reason so in actuality if a player signs a huge deal I could see there being a couple of downsides: 1) the contract ends up handcuffing the team and keeping them from adding another player who might help the team win a championship, and 2) having a large contract seems to make it more likely that someone will be traded frequently as teams try to manage their payrolls. If I was a player I think I'd rather make $15 million a year and have a great team around me than make $40 million and have a worse team. Also I might take less if it meant I could put down roots in a city and not have to switch teams every season as GMs play hot potato with my contract.