On Monday, Jayson Tatum signed a new five-year, $314 million dollar extension with the Boston Celtics that will make him the highest paid player in NBA history, passing up his teammate Jaylen Brown, who earned a similar designation last offseason. The Celtics of course are coming off of the franchise's first championship in 16 years this past season, and although Tatum didn't exactly light the world on fire during the team's march through the postseason, he's still one of the most valuable players in the league at the age of 26.
Also on Monday, it was reported by ESPN that the Celtics' ownership group, led by Wyc Grousbeck, is planning to sell the team, and now, some are speculating on how the Celtics' massive payroll to their starting lineup could be playing a role in those plans.
“Wyc Grousbeck’s plan here is to sell a majority of the team now, and then get control of the team for the next 3 years while the Celtics are expected to be a really good team, and then say, hey now it’s your turn to have the team down the road,” reported Tim Bontemps of ESPN on The Hoop Collective podcast. “This is called the Cuban, this is what you do when you sell control of the team and then try to say that you still control the team when you in fact do not control the team.”
“The Cuban” would of course refer to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who sold the team recently but still remains in many respects the non-basketball face of the franchise.
Bontemps also broke down how the Celtics' massive luxury tax bill down the line could have affected Grousbeck's plans.
“The Celtics right now are on pace to have a luxury tax and pay roll bill as of right now approaching $500 million dollars, not this coming year but next year when all these extensions kick in,” reported Bontemps. “That would be the record in NBA history by $100 million dollars, I don’t think the Celtics are going to be paying a luxury tax bill to that degree, there’s a lot of different factors involved here, I think there’s little doubt that the expense of the team is going to be part of it.”
A hefty price
The Celtics have indeed invested (very) heavily into the starting five that just won them the NBA championship. Once all of their extensions kick in, Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White–who also signed an extension recently–will all be making north of $30 million per year.
Still, the results on the court so far for this group have been hard to argue with, as Boston recently put together the most dominant playoff run since the 2017 Kevin Durant Golden State Warriors, finishing the postseason with a record of 16-3 and never having a series extended past Game 5, a trend that continued with their Finals win over the Dallas Mavericks.
In any case, greatness doesn't come cheap, especially with the massive contracts being handed out in today's NBA landscape.
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