As we know, our man Shaq is never shy about talking about big subjects.. Especially when it comes to BIG money. It’s the NBA offseason, so that means teams are evaluating their current rosters, and especially their payrolls… to see where and how they’ll be making big investments in the future.
Speaking of big, some of the big names in the game are looking ahead to big (there’s that word again!), BIG money contracts for the coming season, and coming years. O’Neal has been spending some quality time on various social media platforms, talking about who is most deserving of high-dollar contract extension.
In the NBA, the term for that big money deal is the “supermax contract.” Every team has a max amount it can spend on payroll in any given year, but there’s always a way to structure a contract over several years to offer superstars even bigger, more lucrative deals.
If you follow Shaq online through any of his socials, you know he’s never shy about offering opinions on players, the game, and especially money. Recently, he posted about a few of the games current stars, and the huge numbers they may soon be seeing on their pay stubs.
For example, Shaq supports the idea of a whopping $404,000,000, 5-year deal for Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, as well as a $334,000,000 deal for Boston’s Jayson Tatum. The Celtics seem to be in a spending mood this summer. They recently announced a huge new $305,000,000 deal for Jaylen Brown over the next 5 years.
Should The Joker get that new “supermax” deal, he’ll leap to the top of the list of highest-paid players in the game. No doubt that’s well-deserved money, considering how he led the Nuggets through a strong postseason campaign and the NBA Championship.
Just for the record, other big money players are pretty much who you’d expect – the “usual suspects,” shall we say. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is already getting huge money. Also, guys like Joel Embiid and Luka Doncic are also eligible for huge extensions, with both potential deals worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $367 million.
Of course the big money is nice, but there’s not doubt Jokic’s biggest reward of the just-passed season is Shaq inducting him into the “Big Man Alliance.” Just kidding (sort of…) On that “Alliance” list: Shaq, Jokic, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, and David Robinson.
No matter how the details eventually work out, the Association’s biggest stars are in for some big, BIG money. Nice work!