Following up on our recent post about inflation adjusted salaries, I decided to take a look at how NBA player salaries adjusted for inflation and by experience varied across time.
Some trends:

• salary increases with experience up until about year eight, plateaus until around year eleven, then declines until retirement
• rookie salaries (years 0-2) have increased over the years
• years 3-9 peaked in the late 90s to early 00s
• years 10-14 have been trending upward over time
• years 15-20 are somewhat trendless, due to small sample sizes

• salary increases mirror player development, albeit with a few years’ lag
• salaries for young players (0-3) have no doubt been affected by the rookie scale
• particulars of the CBAs affecting years 4-9?
• younger players (high schoolers) and medicine might explain the trend in years 10-14

Oh, and those outliers at years 16 and 17? Guess who!

Superman!