The NBA is planning to sign a contract A media rights deal this big The amount shall be read out only in Dr. Evil’s voice. $76 billion.
About half of that money would go to players under the revenue-sharing provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, resulting in a surge in salaries. Beginning with the 2025-26 season, the salary cap is expected to increase by up to 10% each year.
Ten years from now, the cap number should be over $200 million, and not long after that, with a $600 million contract, the annual salary could easily exceed $100 million.
We’ve come a long way since 2012 when the Nets invoked the amnesty clause on Travis Outlaw for an excessively high $7 million.
So how does this impact the Knicks?
It’s hard to predict, but the easiest one to predict is their most important player, Jalen Brunson.
Currently recovering from surgery to repair a broken shooting hand, the star point guard turns 28 in August and is eligible for a contract extension this summer.
According to the CBA, Branson could sign for a 40% increase on his previous salary, with an 8% raise each year, which doesn’t even cover inflation these days (I’m only half joking).
Brunson’s current contract comes with a reduced salary, paying him about $25 million next season, so an extension could only go up to about four years and $156.5 million.
It is categorized as follows:
2025-26: $35 million
2026-27: $38 million
2027-28: $41 million
2028-29: $43 million
Given Brunson’s performance and how he’s performed in the playoffs, a max extension would mean a low salary for a player who will be in his 30s by the end of the season.
There are 33 players scheduled to make more than $35 million in 2025-26, including:
• Desmond Bane
• Michael Porter Jr.
• Darius Garland
• LaMelo Ball
• Trae Young
• Bradley Beal
• Deandre Ayton
Branson is better than them all.
So what are his other options?
Brunson could also wait until he hits free agency in 2025, when he’ll be eligible for a bigger contract. Without knowing the cap number for 2025-26, it’s hard to project an exact number (a standard max contract is worth 30% of the cap), but factoring in a big TV contract that would raise the cap by 10% each year starting in 2025-26, it’s safe to call Brunson’s max deal around $260-270 million over a five-year deal.
That’s a big difference from a potential current contract extension, but it’s not a given that Brunson will become a free agent.
It’s worth noting that prior to Brunson’s strong playoff performance last season, which could have made the difference between winning or losing, sources said the point guard was at least open to a contract extension.
And there’ll be good reasons for that.
The first is obvious safety: $165 million in hand is worth more than a potential $270 million. The second is long-term math.
Let’s say Brunson signs a fourth-year extension with an opt-out option. At that point in 2028, Brunson will have just completed his 10th NBA season and will be eligible for the veteran max (35% of the cap) and become a free agent.
Brunson’s maximum contract value is expected to be $419 million over five years in 2028, with a first-year salary of $72 million.
That would be a huge number, mainly because TV revenues would be absorbed into the cap. $76 billion It helps a lot.
Don’t take the easy route
Sidwell Friends in Washington DC is the school of choice for the families of past US presidents, including Clinton, Obama, Biden, Kennedy, Nixon and Roosevelt.
It was also the high school where Josh Hart went to play basketball but found his path in life.
In an interview with “The Pivot” podcast, Hart detailed why attending such a prestigious, academically rigorous school was both difficult and rewarding.
“My grades were terrible. I went to public school my whole life,” Hart says. “In public school, you turn things in and you get a B, a C, whatever. My freshman year of high school, I had a 3.6 GPA. I was fine. I was focused. Then I transferred to Sidwell, and it was like they were speaking a different language. I didn’t understand what they were talking about. They were digging up poetry and saying, ‘This author writes this word in the middle of the sentence in capital letters, and they’re trying to make it completely clear to the reader.’ … I was like, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ …
“I had bad grades and I took an hour bus to school, so I was up at 6 o’clock. I would sleep through my first English class. … At the end of my sophomore year, they gave my dad a letter, and I think he still has it, that said, ‘I think he’ll be more successful in his basketball career elsewhere.’ What was great was that the people around me, my friends, people in the Sidwell community, my parents, my teachers, fought for me and said we didn’t give him the right resources to be successful. They came together and changed the principal’s decision and got me back in school. At that point, I thought, ‘I can’t walk away from this support system that fought for me.'”
Hart said sticking with Sidwell took a determination he’d never attempted before, but it was a big moment for him.
“Montrose Christian School [in Rockville, Md.] It was a top-five, top-10 basketball program in the country. That’s where I wanted to go,” Hart said. “… That was the biggest thing. [at Sidwell] … At the end of the day, it wasn’t just, “Okay, let’s stay here and enjoy it.” It was, “I know this road isn’t going to be easy. I have to live with another family.”
“[O]On Saturdays, I had a woman named Nikki Bravo who helped me academically. So, I went to my host family’s house Monday through Friday. I was basically at Nikki Bravo’s house all day Saturday. I was at my parents’ house on Sunday. And then on Monday, I would do it all again. …So it’s a combination. I knew the road wouldn’t be easy, but I chose to do it anyway. I chose to face adversity head on. In my personal life, I wouldn’t have had a wife. She went to the same high school as me. My best friends are now going to the same high school. So, when you look at everything in my life, it’s all based on high school. And it’s based on what happened in high school. And if I had made the choice to go to Montrose, my path would have been completely different. “
Silence is not golden
Most professional league teams hold a media availability at the end of the season, sometimes called “baggy day” because it occurs right after the players have cleaned out their lockers, or sometimes called “trash bag day” or “exit interview day.”
At some point before or after these interviews, the team’s top executives will hold a State of the Union press conference about the team.
However, the Knicks won’t do that.
For the sixth straight year, the team failed to use a player in the days following a loss, and Leon Rose, who has not personally answered questions from independent media since being hired in 2020, declined reporters’ requests for postseason interviews.
Regardless of what’s going on on the court, at least the front office has been consistent in staying quiet, but I see two big problems with that.
1. A lack of transparency leads to a lack of accountability when things go wrong.
2. The fans praising the silence on social media are the same ones asking what the strategy is regarding OG Anunoby’s free agency, Isaiah Hartenstein’s free agency, Julius Randle’s recovery, the draft, the trade market, Tom Thibodeau’s contract extension, Brunson’s contract extension, past trades involving draft picks Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Quentin Grimes. You know who I’d like to ask those questions to?
