‘Lord have mercy’: All-Star signs richest contract in NBA history

The NBA has been rocked by staggering news a two-time All-Star has signed basketball’s richest ever contract in a move of total “madness”.

Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics. Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images.

Jaylen Brown is seeing nothing but green.

The Boston Celtics’ star has agreed to sign the richest deal in NBA history — a five-year, $304 million supermax extension, his agent, Jason Glushon, told ESPN.

The figure is a bonkers $450 million Australian dollars.

Brown became eligible for a supermax extension after earning All-NBA Second Team honours for the 2022-23 season, The New York Post reports.

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The extension kicks in for the 2024-25 season when he’ll earn $52.4 million, the largest amount a player has ever made in a single season.

In the final year of the contract, Brown will make $69.1 million dollars.

This contract surpasses reigning NBA champion Nikola Jokic’s $276 million extension from 2022.

The numbers are simply scary.

pic.twitter.com/CxtzOn11IT

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 25, 2023

The reaction to the agreement has been mixed with commentators questioning Brown’s worth — and the team’s ability to win a championship with Brown and Jayson Tatum.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said on First Take that Brown is not Boston’s best player.

“The first thing I thought about when I saw that deal is, ‘Lord have mercy’,” he said.

“Because what is Jasyon Tatum going to get? Because for Jaylen Brown and all the things that he is, the one thing he is not is Jayson Tatum. He is not the best player on the Boston Celtics.”

However he also said it is a wise investment by the team given Brown and Tatum likely have 10 more years at the top of their game.

MMA journalist and avid hoops fan Ariel Helwani was also blown away.

“Madness. Congrats to Jaylen on the deal,” he posted on Twitter.

“Richest ever? Madness.”

The contract also comes with a guaranteed trade kicker, although Brown had to relinquish the typical player option that stars have in their final year under contract to receive it.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are yet to go all the way. Photo: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images.

Jaylen Brown is comingoff his best season. Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images.

The new deal keeps the forward in Celtic green through the 2028-29 season, but throughout the early months of the summer it wasn’t always a given that this contract would materialise.

Brown’s talent has never been the question — he’s coming off the best season of his career with averages of 26.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists and earned himself both an All-Star nod along with his All-NBA Second Team selection.

However, fans and analysts alike have routinely questioned Brown’s fit with fellow All-NBA forward Tatum.

After failing to make it back to the NBA Finals this past season after making it in 2022, the trade Jaylen Brown campaign was in full swing.

However, history shows that the Brown-Tatum duo is arguably the best one-two punch in the NBA today.

The pairing combined for 56.7 points per game last season, ranking fourth-most by a duo since the 1976-77 merger, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Similarly impressive was that they both scored 30 points in 10 games, something only Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant achieved as teammates in the last 30 seasons.

— This story originally appeared on nypost.com and has been republished with permission

Originally published as ‘Lord have mercy’: All-Star signs richest contract in NBA history