Breaking Down the Biggest Contracts in NBA History
NBA free agency begins on June 30, and there's never been a better time to be a free agent. Because business is booming.
Today's basketball players are making more money than they ever have before. Which is supposed to happen. As the game continues to grow, more money is invested into the league, which means more money trickles down to the players due to the CBA. The NBA salary cap is determined by how much money is coming into the league, and maximum contract values are tied to a percentage of that salary cap. So it's even more of a direct correlation than you'd think. When business is good for the NBA, business is good for the players.
We've now reached the point where NBA players are enjoying comically large contracts that pay them ludicrous sums annually— and it's only going to get crazier after the NBA signs new broadcasting rights deals following next season.
With the 2024 offseason in full swing, it feels like a good time to take stock of the richest contracts the NBA world has ever seen.
Biggest Contracts in NBA History
Below you'll find the 10 biggest contracts ever handed out in NBA history.
As you will notice, all these players are active and the deals handed out quite recently. That is due to the max contract rule in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which allows for teams to offer certain players up to 35% of the total salary cap. Before max contracts, teams didn't hand out deals of this size because they were constrained by the salary cap and the general finances of the league.
To illustrate this idea, in 2014 the salary cap was just over $63 million total. No team's contracts could collectively add up to more than $63 million per season. As seen above, Jaylen Brown's $304 million deal will pay him $60 million annually. Just Jaylen Brown will make what was the entire salary cap in 2014.
Crazy, right? It just goes to show how much the NBA has grown financially in the last decade.
The logical follow-up is, how does a player qualify for a historic deal?
How Do Max Contracts Work in the NBA?
In essence, there are two types of max contracts a player can sign in the NBA.
There is the rookie max contract extension, which allows for a team to offer a player they drafted an extra-big extension if they achieve certain accolades. Specifically, a player who is reaching the end of his rookie contract in the NBA can be offered a contract that is worth up to 30% of the salary cap if they are named Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, or an All-NBA team within the last two seasons. This is the extension Luka Doncic and Trae Young were eligible for, as they both made All-NBA teams before their max contracts kicked in.
Then there is the designated veteran player exception, more colloquially known as the Supermax contract. Players who sign supermax deals receive a contract worth 35% of the salary cap. To qualify, a player must be entering their eighth or ninth season in the NBA and have earned any one of the three following honors: an All-NBA team nomination in the season leading up to the signing of the contract (or two of the previous three), a Defensive Player of the Year award, or an MVP award. That's the contract Jaylen Brown signed last offseason that set records as the most expensive contract in basketball history.
Who Will Sign the Next Record-Breaking Contract?
With the knowledge that these contracts are tied directly to the salary cap, and that the salary cap is on a continuous upwards trajectory, it is only natural to then wonder who is next. What player is next in line to receive an utterly gigantic contract that will break Brown's record for richest contract in history?
In the short term, the answer is Jayson Tatum, Brown's teammate up in Boston. The Celtics superstar earned an All-NBA first team nomination on top of his first NBA title in 2023-24 and is eligible to receive a $315 million supermax extension to supplant his co-star in terms of biggest contract in NBA history.
Looking to the future, Luka Doncic is up next. After he signed a $215 million rookie extension, Doncic has only continued on his rise to one of the top players in the whole league. This past season he was named to the All-NBA first team and made an NBA Finals run, which means Doncic is eligible to sign a supermax contract projected to be worth $346 million in the 2025 offseason.
There's a lot of money flying around in the modern NBA, and it's only going to get more mind-blowing in the future.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Breaking Down the Biggest Contracts in NBA History.