History of NBA super - Shanxi Yellow Bird Inc.

Even as Jaylen Brown processed the early emotions of the Celtics falling into a 3-0 hole to the Heat, then rallying to tie the Eastern Conference finals only to be eliminated in excruciating fashion, the weight of the impending offseason already loomed over him.

The All-NBA season that made Brown eligible for a super-max extension this summer seemed less significant after falling short of a return to the Finals, and thinking about a five-year contract that could reach about $290 million felt more like a burden than a reward.

Super-max extensions weren't intended to cause as much stress as they have since they were introduced in the NBA six years ago.

The right to offer 35 percent of the salary cap to an elite player (MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, or All-NBA) entering his eighth or ninth season — his prime — via the designated player extension was meant to be a carrot that teams could dangle to keep players from leaving, not a burden that both the team and player had to carry into the offseason.

But the league learned quickly that not every team would be willing to commit so much money to a star simply because he was developed in the organization. It also learned that not every player would be willing to stay with a team because of how much money was in front of him.

The first sign that the super-max wouldn't always be the useful tool that the league imagined came in 2017 when DeMarcus Cousins — one of the most dominant big men in the league — was in line for a historic payday. But rather than commit $209 million to him over five years, the Kings traded him to the Pelicans.

The first sign that players might not necessarily be swayed by additional money came two years later when Anthony Davis demanded a trade from the Pelicans, walking away from a five-year, $229 million deal on the table for a chance to play with LeBron James with the Lakers.

With Brown in line to become the 12th player to sign a "designated veteran extension," he and the Celtics are at a tricky intersection. Instead of the contract being a culmination for a player who helped the team reach the postseason in each of his first seven seasons, capping it with a career year (26.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game), it has raised questions about whether Brown wants to remain in Boston, whether the Celtics should commit so much to him, and — most insidiously — whether Brown is worthy of it.

If the bar for super-max worthiness is winning a title, then that bar is high. The only player who had won a title prior to signing a super-max deal was Stephen Curry, the most decorated player to sign one (two titles, four playoff appearances, two MVPs, and four All-NBA nods before the lucrative deal).

Devin Booker and Russell Westbrook are the only other players who had gone to the Finals with the team that signed them to the extension. James Harden went to the Finals with the Thunder but never got past the conference finals with the Rockets.

The only players to win titles after signing super-max extensions are Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo. After a win in Game 1 of the Finals Thursday, the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic is three wins away from joining them.

At 26, Brown has been to the Finals once and the conference finals five times. The only super-max player with as many playoff appearances before signing the deal was Harden with seven, and two of those were with Oklahoma City, not Houston.

Some players’ super-max credentials are more undeniable than others.

Curry was bulletproof when he signed his five-year, $201 million deal in 2017.

Harden was an MVP and a five-time All-NBA player who had gone to the playoffs twice with Oklahoma City, including a Finals trip in 2011, and five times as the centerpiece of a Houston team before signing a four-year, $170 million extension.

Westbrook won MVP, was All-NBA six times, and helped the Thunder keep it together after Kevin Durant left for Golden State in 2016.

Antetokounmpo and Jokic were both two-time MVPs and four-time All-NBA players. Giannis also had Defensive Player of the Year hardware.

Meanwhile, Devin Booker and John Wall earned super-max eligibility with just one All-NBA honor. Wall is the most glaring example of a super-max extension going wrong. Plagued by injuries, he played just 147 games after signing in 2017. The Wizards traded him to Houston in 2021.

Taking less than the max is unlikely but not unprecedented. Rudy Gobert took less than the full super-max from Utah in 2020 ($205 million over five years instead of $228 million) to give the Jazz roster flexibility.

While the super-max might seem like a binding commitment, teams have been able to make trades despite the hefty salaries. The Thunder accommodated Westbrook in a trade to Houston in 2019 for Chris Paul; the Rockets moved him to Washington in 2020 in a super-max-for-super-max deal for Wall. The Wizards dealt him to the Lakers in 2021 and the Lakers this year traded him to the Jazz, who bought out the final year of his contract, allowing him to land with the Clippers.

Harden forced a trade to Brooklyn in 2020 and another to Philadelphia in 2022. The Jazz moved Gobert to Minnesota last year.

While the microscope may be on Brown's super-max eligibility this year, what makes the Celtics’ situation unique is that Jayson Tatum will also be super-max-eligible next year.

The collective bargaining agreement allows teams to have two players on designated veteran extensions, but no team has ever done it. If committing 35 percent of the salary cap to one player for five years is enough to discourage some teams, committing 70 percent to two players poses a much heavier long-term burden.

The only team that's come close to facing that situation was the Warriors in 2019. With Curry and Klay Thompson in their backcourt, the Warriors were in the middle of their fifth straight Finals appearance when Thompson learned that he narrowly missed third-team All-NBA honors (which would have made him super-max-eligible).

Thompson couldn't hide his disappointment. Instead of a five-year, $221 million super-max deal, he signed a five-year, $190 million deal. But it kept a Warriors front office already navigating one of the most expensive rosters in the league from having to make one more difficult decision.

A super-max contract would thrust Brown from being the 47th-highest-paid player in the league next season to ninth in 2024-25. If both Brown and Tatum sign super-max deals, the Celtics will be the only team with two players with top 10 salaries in 2026-27.

The Brown/Tatum/Celtics situation is what was intended when the super-max was created. Two players rose to an elite level while playing for the team that drafted them and that team can now pay them more than any other in the league.

In theory, it was a best-case scenario. But falling short of the Finals has added more super-max stress than any of them could have imagined.

Julian Benbow can be reached at [email protected].