Incidentally, Tango responded to that question a few days ago. Anyway, the reason stars aren't paid an exponentially greater salary than average players is because they are guaranteed many more years. Average players don't get 6 or 7 year deals, only the best players do. So while the stars may be paid in a linear fashion on a yearly basis, they are still guaranteed an exponentially larger amount of money than lesser guys. That's why long term contracts so often overpay players near the end; a lot of the money the player deserves early in the contract gets pushed out into future years when the player is in a decline. Therefor, if you think players should be paid in an exponential fashion on a yearly basis but want to maintain the current risk/reward then you should guarantee fewer years for stars (or guarantee more years for average players).