Celtics Legend Paved Avenue For Jaylen Brown’s Supermax Contract

In a roundabout way, Jaylen Brown has Bob Cousy to thank for the five-year, $304 million supermax contract extension he signed with the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics legend played 13 seasons for Boston from 1950-1963 and in 1954 Cousy helped create the National Basketball Players Association and served as its first president.

Cousy, who turned 95 on Wednesday, told NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg he doesn’t bemoan the professional players of today making boatloads more money than he did during his playing career.

“My last year, they told me I was the highest paid player in the league, I made $35,000,” Cousy told Forsberg. “One of the things I’m most proud about is starting the Players Association, because that somehow has lent itself, 60 years later, in terms of the interaction between the Players Association and the owners, to guys signing $300 million contracts for five years for playing a child’s game.”

“I’m not sitting here pissed off as hell because they’re making all that money and I didn’t.”

Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy

To almost everybody, there is a big difference between millions and thousands, but not Cousy.

“I celebrate that. Really. I’m not sitting here pissed off as hell because they’re making all that money and I didn’t,” Cousy said. “I’m so pleased that I had a hand, I think, in setting the table for this.”

Nicknamed “The Houdini of the Hardwood” because of his ball-handling skills, Cousy won six NBA titles with the Celtics before retiring at the age of 34. For the NBA’s 75th Anniversary in 2021-22, the league introduced new trophies to be awarded to the best teams and players during the playoffs with the Eastern Conference champion trophy named in the honor of Cousy.

The Celtics won the first Cousy Trophy when Boston defeated the Miami Heat in seven games to capture the title. Cousy was thrilled the Celtics won the inaugural trophy and continues to root for his former team.

“It allows me to be part of the legacy of this wonderful league and sport that I was involved in, intimately, for 30 years. Or still am, in some ways,” Cousy said. “It gives me a place in history. Hopefully, the league will stay alive and the Celtics will be able to win it all.”