Damon Stoudamire spent 13 seasons in the NBA as a point guard. At 5-feet-10, he wasn’t the tallest player on the court but always played his hardest. As a rookie, he had a lot of success in his first season, and he also made a nice amount of money throughout his career.

Stoudamire never played in an all-star game are won any championships, but one thing he can say is that he was well-paid as an NBA player.

Damon Stoudamire’s early success in the NBA

During the 1997 NBA draft, the Toronto Raptors selected Stoudamire with the seventh overall pick in the first round. He was the team’s first-ever draft pick. Stoudamire averaged 19 points and 9.3 assists in his first season. He set the record for 3-point field goals made by a rookie with 133. That record would eventually be broken after Stoudamire’s career was over. The Raptors had a talented rookie, and Stoudamire quickly established himself as one of the top rookies in the league.

During his first season, he ranked second in scoring among all rookies in scoring and led all rookies in minutes played and assists. You couldn’t have asked for a better rookie season. After his first season, he was named the Rookie of the Year, and he was named to the All-Rookie First-Team.

Stoudamire continued to have success in his second season, averaging 20.2 points and 8.8 assists. He only played three seasons in Toronto and was a top scorer in each of those three seasons. After his time in Toronto, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers. Though his production went decreased playing in Portland, he played in the playoffs for the first time in his career in 1998. Stoudamire made it to the playoffs in six straight seasons with the Trail Blazers.

The final stretch in Damon Stoudamire’s career

After playing for some successful teams in Portland, Stoudamire signed with the Memphis Grizzlies. In his first season in Memphis, he averaged 11.7 points per game, and that was the only time he averaged double digits in points playing for Memphis.

In his final year with Memphis during the 2007-08 season, he played in 29 games before being traded to the San Antonio Spurs. Stoudamire came off the bench during his time in San Antonio and only averaged 3.4 points. The point guard finished his career averaging 13.4 points, 6.1 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Damon Stoudamire got paid during his NBA career

When Stoudamire played in Portland, the organization really liked the success he had in Toronto and decided to pay him a good amount of money. He made $80 million during his time with the Trail Blazers. That was a big move for Stoudamire and if he didn’t have the success he had in Toronto, who knows if he would have made that much in Toronto.

Looking at Stoudamire’s career, you can see that you don’t have to make all-star games or individual awards to make a lot of money in sports. Stoudamire played his best basketball at the right time, and he caught the eye of Portland’s front office team and was willing to pay him the big bucks.