Jalen Brunson was probably already the most popular professional athlete in New York City, but his decision to sign a four-year, $156.5 million contract extension on Friday clinched it. The payday, while significant, represents only around 58% of what he could have earned by waiting until next offseason to re-sign on a projected five-year, $269.
1 million max deal as an unrestricted free agent. The Knicks will be able to put those savings to good use in constructing the rest of what they hope will be their first championship roster since 1973. But with this contract has come quite a bit of criticism.
Why would Brunson leave so much money on the table? How will his decision to take less impact other stars around the league? And what does this newfound flexibility mean for the Knicks? Do they suddenly just have another $113 million to work with over the next several years? Well, the answers here are complicated and messy. We won't fully understand the implications of Brunson's decisions for years to come. But let's walk through every element of this deal and try to figure out what it means for Brunson, the Knicks and the league as a whole moving forward.
So much money did Brunson really leave on the table? The simplest answer to this is that, yes, if you assume that Brunson was going to sign a five-year max contract with the Knicks next summer, the gap between that deal and the one he signed Friday was roughly $113.6 million. However, that is a significant over-simplification fo.