Last season may not have played out well as expected on the court, but Jeremy Lin had a great year financially as a $15 million expiring contract and a pile of endorsements money helped him crack into Forbes' Top 100 highest-paid athletes in 2015.
Lin, whose erratic stint with the Los Angeles Lakers could have cost him a few million dollars in his next contract, racked up a total of $18.9 million last seasons with his salary and endorsement fees combined.
With the third and final year of the three-year, $25 million back-loaded contract he signed with the Rockets in 2012 kicking in, the 26-year old Lin netted a career-high 14.9 million in salary last 2014-15 season. He also banked on his popularity to get additional $4 million from endorsements deals with Adidas and Tag Heuer, catapulting him to 97th place (shares with Max Scherzer and Maurkice Pouncey) in the top 100 money-makers in the sports, according to Forbes.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. continued to occupy the top spot on the list after earning a massive payday on May 3, when he defeated former eight-division world champ Manny Pacquiao in a match that lived up to its billing, though only on the financial aspect of the fight.
The Grand Rapids native has reportedly become $300 million richer with $285 million of that cash coming from guaranteed purse and massive PPV shares. Not known for being an ambassador for corporate entities, the Money Man capitalized on the huge media exposure of the fight to collect a cool $15 million from his endorsement deals with luxury watch-maker Hublot and Burger King.
Meanwhile, Mayweather's foe, Pacquiao may have lost his WBO belt and blow away his chance of becoming the best fighter of his generation following the unanimous decision loss, but he didn't go home empty handed as he also got $160 million - good for no.2.
Soccer superstars Cristiano Ronaldo ($79.6 M) and Lionel Messi ($73.8M) placed third and fourth while Roger Federer rounded out the top-5 with 2015 earning of $67 million. LeBron James, who just earned $20 million in salary this year, occupied the no.6 spot after he put another $64.8 million into his bank.