Los Angeles Lakers Guard Kobe Bryant (24)
Bryant is at the fifth spot with $61.5 million earnings. He signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers worth $48.5 million in November 2013. Bryant also has sponsor deals with Nike, Lenovo, Turkish Airlines, Hublot, and Panini. Reuters/Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA

First it was LeBron James, then Kevin Durant. Add Kobe Bryant to the growing list of NBA stars who have a strong opinion on the recent $24 billion (AUS $27.03B) TV contract with media partners ESPN and TNT.

One of the more outspoken players in the league, Bryant took to Twitter to share his thoughts about the titanic figure the league locked in until the 2026-2027 NBA season.

Players are "encouraged" per new CBA to take less to win or risk being called selfish+ungrateful while nbatv deal goes UP by a BILLION #biz

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) October 7, 2014

The 36-year-old Bryant, who was signed to a huge two-year extension worth $48.5 million in the most recent NBA offseason, is currently the highest paid player in the NBA being owed $23.5 million for the upcoming 2014-2015 NBA season.

Another $25M is due for Bryant the following 2015-2016 season when Bryant hits free agency and possibly, retirement from the NBA. A lot of critics called out Bryant for not taking a real pay cut for his team, the Los Angeles Lakers, which needed much help to improve their roster for the new season.

The Lakers finished with a 27-55 win-loss mark last season, the second worst record in the Western Conference. No thanks in part to a trivial pay cut from Bryant, the Lakers did not acquire any worthy free agents in the offseason and settled on getting the likes of Carlos Boozer, Ed Davis and Jeremy Lin.

All three are expected to play major minutes but it remains to be seen if they can give major contributions to help the Lakers get past the tough West teams.

Before Bryant’s opinion on the new NBA TV deal, it was reported that LeBron James will eventually lobby to remove NBA maximum contracts— which means greater changes in the NBA landscape and how free agent markets play out. Recently, Kevin Durant also joined the fray after the announcement of the new media deal saying that most NBA superstars are underpaid.

Curiously, all three of LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant will become free agents in 2016. Unfortunately for Bryant, only his two other peers deserve a max contract at that point in time.

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