Jaylen Brown has spent his entire seven-year career with the Boston Celtics. The team selected him with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, and together with Jayson Tatum, he’s ascended into stardom. Since he was drafted, Brown has made one All-NBA team, two All-Star rosters, and the Celtics have reached four conference finals and made the NBA Finals in 2022, losing in six games to the Golden State Warriors.
Brown is still looking for that elusive championship, though he did just score another prize: the largest contract in NBA history.
Brown and the Celtics agreed to a five-year, $304 million supermax contract extension, per Brown’s agent Jason Glushon. The deal will keep Brown with the team through the 2028-29 season.
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The 26-year-old Brown had the best season of his career last year, averaging 26.6 points on 49% shooting from the field. Yet, after a rough playoff series against the Miami Heat, fans and critics alike both started murmuring. Was Brown really worth a supermax contract?
Boston believes so, and they’ll likely go through this again next season with Tatum, who’s eligible for a similar supermax extension because he’s also made an All-NBA team. With the rise in the league’s salary cap, Tatum will likely earn more than Brown will on this deal.
Brown will still make plenty of money, though. The extension kicks in after next season, so Brown will earn $31.8 million during the 2023-24 campaign. He’ll then get an impressive raise in the first year of the new deal, making $52.3 million in the 2024-25 season. In the final year of his contract, he’ll make $69.1 million.
This deal breaks Nikola Jokic’s record for the previous richest NBA contract. Jokic signed a five-year, $276 million extension with the Denver Nuggets. Jokic won two consecutive MVP awards in 2021 and 2022 and just led the Nuggets to the first championship in franchise history. The Celtics have a much more storied past than the Nuggets, but they’ll be happy to add another championship banner (or more) to their rafters.
So, how is Brown celebrating his new deal? By continuing philanthropy through his 7uice Foundation. He’s hosting more than 100 Boston public school students in his annual Bridge Program, which aims to offer science, technology, and leadership opportunities to young people in under-represented and marginalized communities.
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