Nutty but if anyone should be paid that much it’s those perennial MVP candidates. It’s the fact that almost every franchise will probably have to hand out these insane maxes to hang on to their fringe All-NBA franchise players to keep them that’s crazy. I bet the first 100 mil per year deal will be some relatively random dude like Lauri.

And we wonder why it’s \(80 for 300 level seats and \)23 for a beer…..

he is one of the few players that is worth that much tho. role players making 30m+ is the craziest thing

not to be that guy but anytime i see stuff like this is crazy because in 2-3 minute he gets what an average “household” makes in a year🫩

When a sports star makes more in one minute than high end CNA’s or lower rated nurses make in one year, you know there is a problem with this country’s priorities.

But hey, the man has kids to feed. Just like that nurse working 60+ hours a week just to make ends meet. Shit is beyond fucked.

CBA money will make you rich and think of loyalty - James Harden

Fans are paying for it with high ticket and concession prices

All these numbers are based on the salary cap rising 10% per year. With destruction of local media rights, I have a feeling none of these extensions will be as high as what they say. Even the NBA is projecting less than a 10% raise next season (they’re expecting a ~7.3% raise), and that was before Fanduel collapsed, which does local games for like half the league. With the league’s projected increase next year plus 10% the 2 years after that, Brunson’s max would only be \(412.4M (obviously still a massive number). With 7% increases until 2028, it would be down to \)390M, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the cap increases are closer to 5%. Obviously these are still massive numbers, but not as high as reporters throw out there.

Yeah but with inflation, it hardly spends like $72m used to.

My mild feelings of rage when I see a dude getting paid millions per year to drop 3 points on ¹⁄₁₅ shooting will go off the rails if I see a 37 year old Brunson drop 1 assist in 10 mins a night and get paid a million dollars for it lol. In all seriousness it would be good of the franchise to pay him back for taking that nice deal to open their window with a big contract later, but I’m not sure they will.

Seeing this reminds me of the story Charles Barkley told about everyone celebrating in the locker room when Magic Johnson became the first player to get paid a million dollars in a season. We’re reaching a million a game numbers 😹😹😹😹

Hahaha, I can totally imagine Calvin making a joke about how pointless school is when he sees how much athletes get paid. Would absolutely love to see what Watterson could come up with to critique the modern day.

Yeah, I’d be shocked if he did. Something like what you suggest would probably be more fair. Highly depends on how he’s doing at that point whether or not that’d feel fair or like a total “you did us right” payment.

Probably all depends on how successful he is during this contract. If he brings them the title I imagine they’d have no problem gifting him the full max even if he’s beginning to show signs of decline. 5 years of an albatross contract is probably worth it if it means you get a championship.

Wasn’t him taking less part of the setup for this? If they don’t pay him it’s going to be what Morey did to Harden all over again.

No the real risk to league revenue (and thus player salaries) is if gambling regulation happens. At this point the gambling companies are paying a good 25% of player salaries.

I too will make the sacrifice. In fact, I’ll go for just a rookie min and deliver 48 minutes a night. I promise I’ll get a rebound.

He literally did in the context of the amount of money he could’ve made vs the contract he signed.

I think this was always part of the calculus. I remember when he took the contract someone did the math that it would let him sign his next contract earlier. That means in terms of career earnings, it’d be about the same money. Taking that original deal meant he was locking in a massive amount of money while still betting on himself to be All NBA level at 32 and still making about the same amount. I think it’s still a sacrifice because there’s no guarantee he’ll get that next max.

Flashbacks to sprewell feeding his family

It’s 2044 and you’re living day to day by investing your 10 dollar life savings in Kalshi NBA betting since AI took all the jobs. You pray that 52 year old Robo-Kawhi puts up exactly 5 points tonight against the Las Vegas Jackpots (sponsored by Draft Kings!) so you can make enough money to buy McRibs (they’re back again) to feed the family tomorrow. 

Wemby bout to get 120m annual eventually.

Not just living in NYC, living as the undisputed most beloved athlete of NYC. Now if he brings us a championship I think we can waive off those No Kings protests and just hand Brunson a crown and scepter.

Celtics made a contender after trading the top half of their team and losing a top ten superstar to injury.

Why can’t jokic, giannis, or Luka do that? Is Jaylen Brown better than all of those guys? Maybe.

I think the baseball situation may have more to do with teams waiting for the 2027 lockout

Contract is obviously factoring into decisions now way more, all due to the second apron. Trae young and ja morant having very little value. Zion, untradeable. Even our own Twolves’ Naz Reid and Randle didn’t get offered some overpaid contract from a bad team.

Like if you roll it back a few years to when the twolves offered KAT and Wiggins max contracts.. teams were handing those things out like candy. Not anymore.

If you’re a AAA free agent now it aint easy to get the full bag.

How many teams really have cap space to hand out a max contract and do you really want to be on that team?

If Giannis would be an FA in the summer who really could offer him the max contract?

They don’t have all the leverage as now teams don’t want to go into the first apron let alone the second apron of the tax.

That’s going to end up with these mid level guys having to sign for sometimes dozens of millions of dollars less because teams aren’t going to want to go into the tax.

So the very very top is protected and everyone else can kinda fuck off

Dudes who normally would get 18mil deals on their second contract are now going to be getting vet minimum offers because of the tax aprons. Someone like Julius Randle is going to miss out on dozens of millions of dollars going forward.

That final bag gonna look like a kids birthday party gift bag compared to the duffel bag full of cash it would have been two-three years ago

I have a rudimentary “career simulator” that I built in Excel to try to map out the decline of shorter guards (like Kemba) using as many free stats as possible to map out against age, and weirdly it tells me that Brunson is going to grow 4 inches and get better on defense. So you guys should give him that contract

kms smh

For sure - they drafted Luka in the first round the of the same draft. Clearly a brilliant organization!

i mean there are enough teams that pass on him in the first round.

Just give him the team dolan at that point

That’s pretty much the only scenario - if he carries the team to a chip. No other scenario justifies that max contract at 32. 

Maybe he just determined he was able to live his lifestyle, support his family, and secure generational wealth with the paltry amount he was offered? If more people thought like Jalen Brunson we’d probably live in a better society tbh

Most people also don’t have a real chance at a career ending injury every time they go to work.  Most people also don’t sign multi-year contracts at their job.  

You can’t compare an NBA player signing early to secure a bag to Jeff in accounting at the local window company.  

Right? I remember it was pretty shrewd business on his part.

This has nothing to do with the Mavs. This is referring to his first contract extension with the Knicks.

He’s the 3rd highest paid player on the team right now behind KAT and OG.

This, he’s just setting the tone. 5 years 200-250M’s is in the realm of possibilities though

Honestly it’s Thibs erasure. That’s the man who brought us back.

I don’t know how they did it but I’ll tell you Kawhi didn’t actually plant those trees.

I love that Curry doesnt count as a small guard so people can repeat this nonsense.

gotta spend money somewhere, might as well be on a guy proven to get people into the building to watch

NBA teams have to spend a percentage of the cap. By default, a team may pay Brunson and tank rather than fielding a good team.

No one has to pay him, but teams still have to spend the same amount of money. Someone would pay him like the Rockets with FVV.