NBA

NBA insider believes Jaylen Brown has to ‘elevate his game’ to justify his record-breaking contract in Boston

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Antonio Kozlow
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Antonio Kozlow Sports Editor

Antonio is a life long sports enthusiast and professional journalist, who shares an obssesive urge to find and dig up the most interesting facts to guide gamblers towards more exciting, yet safe bets. In his own words, ''you can never really know enough about the things you love''.

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Updated03 Aug 2023

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Celtics Jaylen Brown passes Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan, and Donovan Mitchell in total scoring

Last week Jaylen Brown‘s contract extension was finally confirmed by the Boston administration, making him the highest-paid athlete in the history of the league. The Celtics agreed to a record-breaking $304 million supermax extension this summer, which will kick off during the 2024/25 campaign.

Many experts believe he’s become one of the most overpaid players in the NBA, just like insider Zach Buckley expressed recently, saying that the Massachusetts franchise might regret their decision to pay him this much.

The journalist from Bleacher Report listed the five basketball stars who own the worst contracts in the NBA, with Jerami Grant and Karl-Anthony Towns also on the list.

“His average salary for the final three seasons of his pact sits north of $61 million. That kind of coin should only be attached to a no-brainer superstar. Brown just hasn’t hit that tier.

“So, he probably needs to elevate his game in order to justify his pay rate. Yet, even maintaining his present level could be tricky as he enters his 30s for the final two seasons of his new deal. Boston may not feel buyer’s remorse, but the two-way swingman could still rank among the league’s most overpaid players in three years,” Buckley said.

Ever since he was drafted by the Celtics with the third overall pick back in 2016, both Brown and Boston have made the playoffs for seven consecutive campaigns.

“It’s not just about a contract or money or playing basketball. It’s about making a difference in life,” Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck explained. “That’s what Jaylen embodies to me and to my partner, Steve [Pagliuca], and others and to all of us here at the Celtics. He’s a true Celtic. He’s a Celtic for years to come.”

“We live and burn with the desire to make the world a better place. And as well, not to be forgotten, to win banner 18.”

Brown expects to ‘attack the wealth disparity’ in Boston after reaching agreement for historic NBA deal

Right after Brown signed the contract extension, he received the media in a press conference and took the opportunity to express his desire to “attack the wealth disparity” in Boston with his fortune.

“I want to launch a project to bring Black Wall Street here to Boston. I want to attack the wealth disparity here,” he said when asked about what he plans to do with his “generational wealth.”

Check out his speech given last week right after he signed the richest contract in NBA history:

“I think there’s analytics that support that stimulating the wealth gap could actually be something that could be betterment for the entire economy,” he added. “With the biggest financial deal in NBA history, it makes sense to talk about, one, your investment in community, but two also, the wealth disparity here that nobody wants to talk about. It’s top five in the U.S. It’s something that we can all improve on. It’s unsettling.”

According to the records found in the U.S. News and World Report, the state of Massachusetts ranks 5th across all 50 states with the largest income inequality gap. Those rankings are established by the Gini Index, which is based on information collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.