Jaylen Brown’s Celtics Extension Reportedly Has Interesting Wrinkles

The Boston Celtics reportedly have made Jaylen Brown a very rich man.

Brown and Boston on Tuesday agreed to a five-year, $304 million extension, which is set to become the richest contract in league history. The deal will tie Brown to the Celtics through the 2028-29 season.

The CBA agreed to between the NBA and NBPA made these negotiations fairly simple, but there are a few interesting wrinkles that aren’t obvious on the surface.

The most noteworthy piece for Celtics fans is likely the fact that Brown reportedly did not receive a player option, which was available to him and would have allowed him to reach free agency in 2028. Brown is set to make roughly $69 million for the final season of his new deal.

Brown also wasn’t eligible for a no-trade clause, so in what was likely a compromise from Boston, the Celtics included a trade kicker that is worth around 15%, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. That kicker allows Brown to receive 15% of his remaining salary on top of the current one at the time of a potential trade, so long as it doesn’t surpass the league max. That means Brown’s salary would inflate from $69 million to nearly $80 million if he were to be traded in 2028.

That will likely tie Brown to Jayson Tatum through the end of the decade, as the Celtics are eligible to sign Tatum to a supermax extension worth up to $338 million next offseason. That would put Boston on the hook for a combined $642 million between “The Jays.”

The two less-impactful elements of the extension come in the form of its payment, and how where it will be announced. Brown elected for a six-month pay schedule rather than being paid once per year, according to Himmelsbach, who also reported Brown requested that his extension will be announced at his 7uice Bridge Program, a collaboration with MIT for minority high school students, instead of a formal press conference at the Auerbach Center.