  For those of you who may have missed it, in their May 17th issue Sports Illustrated published a list of the 50 highest payed active American athletes. The list was based on the current seasons for team sports and the 2003 calender year for winning-based sports. Here are the top 10. 1. Tiger Woods $76,673,413 -- Tiger earned $6.673 milliion on the PGA Tour in 2003. His endorsements carried him to the top spot.
His deals with Buick, Nike and EASports among others earned him an estimated $70 million dollars in 2003. 2. Shaquille O'Neal $40,517,858 -- The Lakers big man was payed $26.517 million this year. His endorsements with Nestle, Burger King, and Radio Shaq.... er Shack got him an additional $14 million. 3. LeBron James $39,018,920 -- LeBron was payed the maximum salary for an NBA rookie($4.018 million).
His endorsements($35 million) were second only to Tiger to put him in the number three slot. Nike & Sprite led the way to the bank for LeBron. 4. Peyton Manning $36,400,000 -- The currnet Manning family leader in chokes also earned the most cash. The Colts payed him $26.9 million dollars to not lead them to the Super Bowl. Gatorade and Nike helped Peyton earn an additional $9.5 million.
5. Kevin Garnett $36,000,000 -- The current NBA MVP was also the highest payed athlete in terms of salary with a $29 million dollar salary. His endorsements totaled $7 million. 6. Oscar De La Hoya $32,000,000 -- The highest payed boxer made $30 million for his fighting efforts in 2003. Someone payed him $2 million to pimp something that I do not know about.
Probably hair gel or something. Damn pretty boy boxer. 7. Andre Agassi $27,030,929 -- The highest payed tennis player made $2.53 million for his efforts on the court. He made $24.5 million pimping for Nike, Gatorade and Nikkon among other companies. 8.
Kobe Bryant $25,498,000 -- Kobe was payed $13.498 million to play for the Lakers this year. He earned an additional $12 million to represent McDonald's, Sprite and others. 9. Derek Jeter $25,000,000 -- $19 million gives him the highest salary on the Yankees. American Exprees and Gatorade gave Jeter $6 to push their products. 10.
Grant Hill $24,279,250 -- CAN YOU SAY OVERPAYED!!!! I knew you could. The Orlando Magic payed Hill $13,279,250 to play slightly more basketball than me this year. I think Nike payed Hill like $8 million to say he does not wear their shoes. The other $3 million probably came from some company who makes ankle braces or some surgeon or something. 
