Kyle Kuzma's net worth is being cited online as $25 million, a figure that has gone around again after the NBA forward took a pointed dig at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. That number comes from Celebrity Net Worth, and it has been repeated in coverage such as a Hindustan Times report.

But the $25 million figure sits well below what Kuzma has actually banked in NBA salary alone. Even Celebrity Net Worth's own page notes he has earned more than $60 million in salary over his career, a detail that sits oddly next to its own $25 million headline number. For Indian readers used to seeing single, tidy net-worth numbers attached to celebrities, Kuzma's case is a useful reminder that these estimates and hard contract data rarely match.

The $25 million figure everyone is citing

Celebrity Net Worth's estimate also notes that Kuzma signed a four-year, $90 million contract with the Washington Wizards in July 2023. That contract detail checks out against other sources. The $25 million overall net-worth figure, though, appears to undercount his career earnings once salary data is factored in.

Basketball-Reference's player profile also shows Kuzma was drafted 27th overall in 2017 and went on to win one NBA championship, per Basketball-Reference. That title came with the Los Angeles Lakers before he moved on to bigger paychecks in Washington.

What his NBA paychecks actually show

Basketball-Reference puts Kuzma's career basketball salary at a minimum of $84,674,421, with 2024 earnings alone listed at $25,568,182. That single season's pay is roughly equal to the entire net worth some outlets attribute to him.

Spotrac, which tracks player contracts and payroll across US sports, goes further. It lists Kuzma's career earnings through 2025 at $107,628,279, and confirms his current Wizards deal as four years and $90 million, fully guaranteed, according to Spotrac. That is more than four times the widely circulated $25 million net-worth claim.

Spotrac also shows the deal is still paying out. Kuzma's 2025-26 cash amount is listed at $22,077,272, with a base salary of $21,477,272 for that season alone. So this is not old money from a past contract, it's an active, ongoing paycheck.

Sportskeeda's reporting adds context on the timeline: when Kuzma signed his Wizards contract on July 8, 2023, he had already earned approximately $73.2 million in NBA salary across seven seasons, per Sportskeeda. Add the Wizards deal on top of that, and the gap with the $25 million figure only widens.

Why the estimates don't agree

Salary Sport takes the opposite direction, pegging Kuzma's net worth at $124,526,766 while listing his 2024-25 basic salary at $25,568,182, the same figure Basketball-Reference cites for that season, according to Salary Sport. So on one end you have a $25 million net-worth claim, and on the other a figure nearly five times higher, both built from overlapping salary data.

Endorsements complicate the picture too. IBTimes reported that Kuzma later signed a Puma endorsement deal worth around $15 million, on top of his NBA salary, per IBTimes. Off-court income like that rarely gets folded cleanly into quick net-worth estimates, which is one more reason the numbers rarely line up.

Older reporting shows how much these numbers have shifted over time. IBTimes once reported Kuzma was worth just $3 million, also citing Celebrity Net Worth, from a period before his bigger contracts and the Puma deal kicked in. A player's public net-worth number can swing by tens of millions of dollars depending on when an estimate was last updated and which salary years it counts.

The Zohran Mamdani Remark

The trigger for renewed interest in Kuzma’s finances was his pointed post about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. According to Hindustan Times, the controversy began after Mamdani posted a video about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expected visit to New York for the UN General Assembly and the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him.

Kuzma reacted on X by mocking what he saw as performative politics. Reports quoted him calling it “a mayor playing president” and criticising public figures who, in his view, focus more on content than actual authority or governance.

The remark quickly turned into a political flashpoint. Mamdani’s supporters viewed Kuzma’s post as an unnecessary attack, while critics of the mayor used it to question why a city leader was speaking so prominently on an international arrest issue. For Kuzma, the post moved the conversation from basketball to politics — and that is why his career, salary and net worth suddenly became part of the same online debate.

What the numbers actually mean

Strip away the viral framing, and the clearest fact here is contractual: Kuzma is on a four-year, $90 million deal with the Wizards, confirmed by both Celebrity Net Worth and Spotrac, and still paying out more than $22 million this season. His career NBA earnings, tracked independently by Basketball-Reference and Spotrac, run well past $84 million and toward $108 million, before counting endorsement income like the Puma deal.

Whatever his true net worth is after taxes, agent fees, and spending, it's built on a far larger income base than the $25 million headline number suggests. Expect these estimates to keep moving as Kuzma's Wizards contract plays out and fresh payroll data comes in. Until a single trusted ledger like Spotrac or Basketball-Reference gets treated as the default source instead of net-worth aggregator sites, readers will keep seeing wildly different numbers attached to the same player.