Despite your uncle's sincerest promises at Thanksgiving dinner, the NBA is in an excellent place financially. The league agreed to an 11-year, $77 billion deal for their media rights in 2024, which spread national games across NBC, Peacock, ABC, ESPN, and Amazon Prime Video.
As a result, the league's salary cap has continued to increase. Even though the New York Knicks' playoff dominance took money off the table, slightly reducing the 2026-27 budget because they only played one Game 6 all postseason, players and coaches' earnings keep going up. Brian Windhorst, Tim MacMahon, and Bobby Marks laughed on the latest Hoop Collective about the reality that the NBA isn't far away from players making $100 million per year.
The trio pivoted toward projecting who the first player to reach $1 billion in career earnings will be. Even though 2026 Finals MVP Jalen Brunson is firmly on top of the basketball world, he didn't come up in the discussion — and more than likely will not be that player. He wasn't a first round draft pick, averaging just a $1.5 million salary on his rookie contract. And he sacrificed a larger deal by extending in 2024, giving the Knicks the flexibility they turned into a title.
The title (and what comes with it) made Brunson’s sacrifice worth it
The guard is often praised for having surrendered $113 million in earnings, even though the math really comes out to about $37 million. Regardless, it was a notable — and unique — sacrifice for an NBA star of any stature.
It was especially impressive for a star that had been underestimated his entire career up until that point. Brunson would have been more-than-worth that full maximum extension in 2025, and the Knicks would have been right to give it to him.
The Knicks' Captain, however, chose leadership. He sacrificed the potential earnings to play as relatively stress-free as possible, able to lay his body on the line for the Knicks without fearing an injury that would alter his upcoming payday. And he gave his league-best front office the flexibility they needed to fill out the rest of their rotation with future NBA Champions.
After ending the well-documented 53-year championship drought, Brunson's status as a "King of New York" was cemented. At least for the foreseeable future, he's the city's King. He'll be treated like it for the rest of his life — and New Yorkers are everywhere. And the sponsorship opportunities that he continues to enjoy as a result of his stardom should help make up the difference.
Brunson's former teammate seemed primed to be NBA's first $1B man
Windhorst, MacMahon, and Marks' discussion did include a quick detour to discuss Luka Dončić. Marks said he previously believed the Slovenian superstar would be the league's first player to reach $1 billion in career earnings. However, the fact that he's no longer with the team that drafted him changes that.
The Dallas Mavericks may genuinely have had the best NBA Draft of all time in 2018. Coming away with Dončić and Brunson, especially with the third and 33rd overall selections, is ludicrous. It's almost as crazy as trading one away for a 32-year-old star known for issues with durability — or letting the other walk because the search to replace him distracted from his true value.
Oh well.
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