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Jaylen Brown now has the biggest contract in NBA history.
Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics have agreed to a five-year, $304 million contract extension, according to multiple reports. The deal is fully guaranteed and includes a trade kicker. It’s the biggest contract signed in NBA history, surpassing Nikola Jokic’s $270 million deal with the Denver Nuggets.
Brown has one-year, $30.7 million remaining on his current contract, with the new deal set to kick in during the 2024-2025 season. Brown will turn 27 years old in Oct.
Here’s the annual contract breakdown for Brown’s new deal, via ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Brown is set to make nearly $70 million in the final season of his deal, in 2028-2029, when he’ll be 32 years old.
Here is the breakdown on the Jaylen Brown super max extension in Boston:
2024-2025 $52,368,085
2025-2026 $56,557,532
2026-2027 $60,746,979
2027-2028 $64,936,425
2028-2029 $69,125,872
Total $303,734,893
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 25, 2023
Brown’s contract was boosted because he made All-NBA Second Team this past season.
The Celtics are about to get very expensive very quickly. Jayson Tatum has two years, $67.5 million left on his contract with Boston. Tatum will also be in line for a max worth 35 percent of the total salary cap. When that goes through, Boston’s flexibility in surrounding their two stars with supporting talent in going to be extremely limited.
The Celtics have had incredible team success despite not winning a championship since drafting Brown with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. Boston has reached at least the Eastern Conference Finals in five of Brown’s seven seasons. The closest the Celtics came to a championship was when they reached the 2022 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Warriors in six games. Boston lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat this past year.
Brown has a reputation as a talented one-on-one scorer and point-of-attack defender because of his tremendous combination of positional size and athleticism at 6’6, 225 pounds. He also has a reputation as a poor ball handler and average shooter. Brown only made 33.5 percent of his three-pointers last season on nearly 500 attempts.
The Celtics made a big splash this offseason by trading Marcus Smart in a deal that brought back Kristaps Porzingis. The pressure starts for the Celtics right now.
