To the victor go the spoils.
Jayson Tatum is a victor, having lifted the Celtics to championship No. 18 this past season. He’s also the definition of a player who gets a supermax contract: Best player on an NBA championship team, First-Team All-NBA, averages 26.9 points a night, and is a high-level defender. Tatum is a top 10 (arguably top-five) player in the league and, at age 26, in his prime.
That supermax just happens to be the largest contract in NBA history thanks to the rising salary cap — Boston offered Tatum a five-year, $313.9 million contract with a player option on the final year, and he’s going to sign it, a story broken by Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and TNT.
BREAKING: Boston Celtics and star Jayson Tatum have reached an agreement on a five-year, $315M supermax extension with a player option that is the largest contract in NBA history, league sources tell @NBAonTNT, @BleacherReport. pic.twitter.com/qVpr94JiAa
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 1, 2024
If you want to know what that looks like per year, ESPN’s Bobby Marks broke it down.
Jayson Tatum Super Max Extension pic.twitter.com/SX6g2btQzT
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 1, 2024
This was expected and exactly what Boston should and had to do.
Tatum averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 4.8 assists a game this past season and kept his production up averaging 25 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game through the playoffs.
New York and Philadelphia improved this offseason, but Boston remains the team to beat. In addition to Tatum the Celtics re-signed Derrick White and with that will bring back the top seven rotation players (not to mention Luke Kornet).
The Celtics also locked up Derrick White this offseason and will head into next season returning the top seven rotation players from the team that just won the title — Boston remains the team to beat. And Tatum is at the heart of that.
Now he will get paid like it.