Honorable mentions: John Wall, Washington Wizards
The contract: 4 years, $170 million (2017)
Coming off arguably the best season of his career, John Wall negotiated a contract extension with the Washington Wizards that the likes of the NBA had not seen yet. It was the start of the “supermax contracts that we see today in the league. However, the move ended up being a big mistake for the Wizards.
At the hands of the injury bug, Wall became the face of the NBA’s worst contract. During the next two seasons after signing the near-$200 million extension, Wall missed 91 of 164 games played during the regular season. He then would miss the entire 2019-20 NBA season. When he was healthy, he was still a strong player for the Wizards. However, the problem was that he was rarely healthy for the team.
It all ended for Wall in Washington when the team traded him (and the contract) to the Houston Rockets (for Russell Westbrook) in 2020. Wall is still bouncing around in the league trying to find a new home, most recently with the LA Clippers before being bought out after the trade deadline (after, ironically, being traded to the Rockets).