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It’s hard to believe it’s already been 14 years since one of the most stacked draft classes in modern NBA history entered the league. Back in 2012, heavy hitters like Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Draymond Green, and Khris Middleton all made their official arrivals.
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While he didn’t achieve a career quite like the aforementioned former and current All-Stars, French guard Evan Fournierwas also part of that draft class. We are talking about a man with 704 NBA games under his belt, over which he averaged a respectable 13.4 points per game while shooting 37.4 percent from deep.
Over the years, Fournier carved out a role for himself as a dependable scoring threat. He spent his last two seasons in the EuroLeague, where he won a championship with Greek powerhouse Olympiacos and earned Finals MVP honors. Recently, Evan decided to open up about one of the biggest differences between the world’s two premier leagues.
“I think a big part of it is cultural. Americans tend to be much more open about salaries and money in general, while in Europe it’s traditionally seen as something much more private. The relationship with money and talking about it publicly is just different,” Fournier posted on his “X” account. “For example, talking about money in France is pretty taboo.”
“That being said, you make a very fair point about the market. More transparency would give players a much clearer picture of their actual value,” Fournier added. “It’s hard to know your true worth when you don’t really know what the market is paying.”
Contract numbers are kept under lock and key
Despite dominating for years with the French national team in FIBA competitions, winning six medals, including two consecutive Olympic silvers, the former No. 20 overall pick didn’t showcase his talents on the European club scene until the latter stages of his career.
The man who averaged 18.5 points on 39.9 percent 3-point shooting in his prime for the Orlando Magic adapted seamlessly to the EuroLeague after 12 seasons in the NBA. While he is far past his peak scoring years, Evan remains a top-tier European star.
With that kind of pedigree, Fournier decided to publicly address the market issues in European basketball, where player salaries have long lacked transparency. This makes it notoriously difficult to gauge market value or benchmark salaries against peers.
Let’s say it is a publicly known fact that a 6-foot-7 forward in the NBA has earned an incredible 145 million dollars, which is indeed serious money that even the best EuroLeague players can only dream of.
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With such a resume behind him, Fournier came to one of the very best European clubs, where well-informed Greek insiders reported that his annual salary at the Greek giant ranges between 2 and 2.5 million dollars net per season, although there is no official information.
Evan Fournier will sign a contract extension until 2028 with Olympiacos Piraeus.
Can confirm the news of @sport24.
Increased salary of 2.7m € per year. pic.twitter.com/CoPFho05OS
— Matteo Andreani (@matty_vanpersie) July 23, 2025
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The NBA Europe project should elevate the continent’s club ecosystem
Evan naturally wants to know where he stacks up against the competition as a seasoned NBA veteran and EuroLeague Final Four MVP, considering how he dominated last year. Still, it is unlikely that anything will change in that regard in the near future.
That dynamic could finally change if the NBA Europe project comes to fruition, because the general plan of Adam Silver and his associates is to bring the NBA as close as possible to Europe and raise the level of club competition even higher.
If that vision becomes reality, expect full salary transparency and standard salary-cap models to follow suit, no matter how much traditional European sports culture resists shedding its financial secrecy.
Related: Kevin Durant had an epic response to Evan Fournier’s statement about the lack of Team USA’s chemistry against France
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This story was originally published September 11, 2026 at 9:14 AM.