That’s how NBA works. They gave value to the players that has more popularity rather than the actual contribution in the game.
Take example Paul George, He is not that productive anymore and he is just getting that numbers because he gets a lot of ball possession yet he earns huge salary despite being injured most of the time.
Team is choosing based on the player popularity.
Well, last year Paul only played half of the regular season games, and his stats dropped significantly, although it is worth noting that in the 23-24 season, he played almost the entire regular season and averaged 22 points per game. As for the player's popularity, I think it’s good for any team’s management to have such players, since tickets to their games get more expensive.
This is true, team profit through tickets and sponsorship are the top priority next to championship.
This is why some team is willing to risk a lot of salary cap to players that has a lot of popularity despite being overrated when it comes to the stats.
Those old era star player is still being value good until now.