Jaylen Brown is seeing nothing but green.
The Boston Celtics’ star has agreed to sign the richest deal in NBA history – a five-year, $304 million ($A448m) supermax extension, his agent, Jason Glushon, told ESPN.
Brown became eligible for a supermax extension after earning All-NBA Second Team honours for the 2022-23 season.
The extension kicks in during the 2024-25 season when he’ll earn $52.4 million ($A77.2m), the largest amount a player has ever made in a single season.
In the final year of the contract, Brown will make $69.1 million ($A101.8m) dollars.
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This contract surpasses reigning NBA champion Nikola Jokic’s $276 million ($A406m) extension from 2022. It 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.
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 Jayson 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 article first appeared on The New York Postand was reproduced with permission.
