by AAA Sports
Sunday, Aug 06, 2023If you had seen Jaylen Brown play in only one game this past season, Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against Miami, you would have declared the Boston Celtics certifiably insane for a month later gracing Brown with the richest contract in league history -- $304 million over five years.
Brown dribbled the ball as if he were a football, committing turnover after turnover as his Celtics were booed off their home court and deprived of an opportunity to get to the Finals for the second straight year and a chance to make amends for their equally awful performance in elimination Game 6 against Golden State in the 2021-22 season.
But the No. 1 sin for an NBA front office is to let talent walk out the door for nothing, so for the time being Brown – who never seems to be able to bring himself to say that he actually likes being in Boston – and the Celtics are in what has been described as a marriage of convenience.
Will Brown staying, at least for the time being, in Boston do much to increase the Celtics' odds at finally breaking through and winning NBA Title 18, which would be their first since the Garnett-Pierce-Allen alliance got them over the hump in 2008? Not so much. The Celtics (+450, Barstool) are in the mix along with the 2021 Champion Bucks (+700) and the defending champion Nuggets (+500) – all pretty much where they were before Brown signed his deal.
As to individual props, consider this: Barstool thinks so little of Brown’s chances of winning the MVP Award that 35 players are given better odds. Nikola Jokic (+400) is a solid favorite, while Brown is at +7500 along with such luminaries as Cade Cunningham, Desmond Bane, and Mikal Bridges.
Part of Brown’s problem is that for the last five years, Jayson Tatum (+900 to win MVP, behind only Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid) eats first, and then Brown. The addition of big man Kristaps Porzingis, who also can score, makes things even more problematic for Brown at the stats dinner table.
Of course, Brown’s sticker-shock paychecks will be the biggest only until the next NBA player takes advantage of the NBA’s maze of rules regarding how salaries can be allocated and manipulated. And the Celtics have to be wondering if Brown will sleepwalk through a season or two and then decide that it might be fun checking out the climate in Dallas, Atlanta, or Miami. Stars merely have to say the word. (Privately, now, since Adam Silver wagged his finger at Damian Lillard’s agent for telling the world that Lillard might not give his all if he has to wear any uniform that doesn’t say Miami or Heat on the front.)
Comparing the salaries of NBA players to those in baseball, football, and hockey is as Apples-to-Oranges as you can get, but just for fun here are a couple of . . . comparisons:
***Aaron Judge, in the early stages of a 9-year, $360-million contract that expires in 2030, has limped through 2023 – missing 54 of the Yankees’ first 101 games. He had two singles in 16 at-bats since returning.
***Connor McDavid, the NHL’s best player, is working on an 8-year, $100-million deal with Edmonton. The Oilers got taken out of the playoffs in the second round this past season.
***Then there’s Patrick Mahones, the best quarterback on the best team in the NFL. He shows game in, game out that he is worth every bit of his $45-million-a-year deal.
Which road will Jaylen Brown, now the richest player in an NBA that has included the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Bill Russell, take? The jury will have its verdict next spring.
Brown dribbled the ball as if he were a football, committing turnover after turnover as his Celtics were booed off their home court and deprived of an opportunity to get to the Finals for the second straight year and a chance to make amends for their equally awful performance in elimination Game 6 against Golden State in the 2021-22 season.
But the No. 1 sin for an NBA front office is to let talent walk out the door for nothing, so for the time being Brown – who never seems to be able to bring himself to say that he actually likes being in Boston – and the Celtics are in what has been described as a marriage of convenience.
Will Brown staying, at least for the time being, in Boston do much to increase the Celtics' odds at finally breaking through and winning NBA Title 18, which would be their first since the Garnett-Pierce-Allen alliance got them over the hump in 2008? Not so much. The Celtics (+450, Barstool) are in the mix along with the 2021 Champion Bucks (+700) and the defending champion Nuggets (+500) – all pretty much where they were before Brown signed his deal.
As to individual props, consider this: Barstool thinks so little of Brown’s chances of winning the MVP Award that 35 players are given better odds. Nikola Jokic (+400) is a solid favorite, while Brown is at +7500 along with such luminaries as Cade Cunningham, Desmond Bane, and Mikal Bridges.
Part of Brown’s problem is that for the last five years, Jayson Tatum (+900 to win MVP, behind only Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid) eats first, and then Brown. The addition of big man Kristaps Porzingis, who also can score, makes things even more problematic for Brown at the stats dinner table.
Of course, Brown’s sticker-shock paychecks will be the biggest only until the next NBA player takes advantage of the NBA’s maze of rules regarding how salaries can be allocated and manipulated. And the Celtics have to be wondering if Brown will sleepwalk through a season or two and then decide that it might be fun checking out the climate in Dallas, Atlanta, or Miami. Stars merely have to say the word. (Privately, now, since Adam Silver wagged his finger at Damian Lillard’s agent for telling the world that Lillard might not give his all if he has to wear any uniform that doesn’t say Miami or Heat on the front.)
Comparing the salaries of NBA players to those in baseball, football, and hockey is as Apples-to-Oranges as you can get, but just for fun here are a couple of . . . comparisons:
***Aaron Judge, in the early stages of a 9-year, $360-million contract that expires in 2030, has limped through 2023 – missing 54 of the Yankees’ first 101 games. He had two singles in 16 at-bats since returning.
***Connor McDavid, the NHL’s best player, is working on an 8-year, $100-million deal with Edmonton. The Oilers got taken out of the playoffs in the second round this past season.
***Then there’s Patrick Mahones, the best quarterback on the best team in the NFL. He shows game in, game out that he is worth every bit of his $45-million-a-year deal.
Which road will Jaylen Brown, now the richest player in an NBA that has included the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Bill Russell, take? The jury will have its verdict next spring.
