When Jaylen Brown and the Celtics reached a supermax extension Tuesday of five years for $304 million, reactions from the internet were about what you’d expect—largely, “Wowwwwww, that’s a ton of money for a star player who isn’t even the best on his team, let alone in the NBA.”
The agreement—which breaks down to almost $61 million a season in what now becomes the biggest contract in NBA history—illustrates something that’s been plainly clear for years now. Namely that we’re in a different frontier of what these players earn at this point, not only placing increased public scrutiny on stars to perform, but also on their clubs, who have more aspects of the salary cap to consider with a brand-new collective bargaining agreement in place.
No one would disagree with the premise that the 26-year-old Brown is a fantastic player, one who can get his own shot almost anytime he likes and defend on the other end of the floor. He averaged 26.6 points, 6.9 boards and 3.5 assists per night last season as Boston ended up a game away from reaching the Finals. For all his stardom, though, it’s also hard to deny two things: Brown has meaningful improvements to make with his ballhandling—something that’s been true for a few years now—and Jayson Tatum stands out as a more complete player, even if the two are capable of winning a championship together.
