Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could be the first NBA star to sign a $400 million contract

Last week, Jaylen Brown made NBA history by signing the first contract worth $300 million. To put that in perspective, TD Garden, the arena where his Boston Celtics play, cost a mere $160 million to build back in 1993. Brown is a really good player, but is he worth the largest contract ever? Kind of. It more comes down to timing as it relates to the new collective bargaining agreement and his individual extension eligibility. Now, CBS Sports projects former Kentucky point guard and current fashion icon, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, will become the first NBA player to receive a contract worth $400 million.

Again, it’s all about timing and the market. SGA’s 2019 max rookie extension did not include a player option year, meaning he will be eligible for a five-year super-max extension in 2026. This is unlike other 2019 max rookie signees, Ja Morant, Zion Williamson, and Darius Garland, who had a player option and thus will only be eligible for four-year extensions, effectively knocking them out of contention for the $400-million contract milestone, even if their per-year salary will be on par.

Of course, Gilgeous-Alexander will need to maintain his current All-Star caliber play until at least 2026, but that seems all but guaranteed. Other, more established stars that could flirt with being the first person to breach the $400 million contract mark include Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, and Kentucky’s own Devin Booker.

These big salaries come with a price for fans

While I’m more than happy for Shai and all the potential basketball billionaires, NBA salaries have gotten as out of hand as Billy Gillespie at a college karaoke bar on a $1-you-call-it night.

Juwan Howard was the first NBA player to break the $100 million contract barrier back in 1996 and it took over 20 years for anyone to reach $200 million, a feat Steph Curry accomplished in 2017. Now in 2023, just six years later, Jaylen Brown hit $300 million and if the projection is true, Gilgeous-Alexander will sign a $400 million deal in 2026.

With the salary cap set to rise 10 percent every year for the next five years, and revenue streaming in for NBA franchises, the top stars will continue getting the lion’s share of the cash. Just look at the Phoenix Suns, who sold midseason for a record $4 billion. They are collecting superstars like a kid might collect their trading cards.

While most of this newfound money stems from TV deals and corporate sponsorships, teams are generating a good chunk of revenue from ticket sales as well. Across the league, the average ticket to a game costs $90, meaning an outing for a family of four would cost $360 before parking, concessions, and the inevitable impulse buy at the team’s overpriced merchandise store.

Compare that $90 ticket to the $55 average ticket price in 2016. That means NBA ticket prices have risen two and a half times quicker than the rate of inflation in the last seven years.

Are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and other players like him worth it?

Worth is all in the eye of the person willing to pay. Is a .jpg image worth hundreds of thousands of dollars if it comes with a digital signature assuring it belongs to you and not the millions of others who could easily take a screenshot of it? A lot of people used to think so.

With all due respect to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s basketball services, just like the NFT market, something is going to have to give. As organizational values continue to climb, the world is running out of people rich enough to buy them. Case in point, Qatari officials just recently bought into Washington Wizards, as oligarchs from the Middle East continue to throw their endless oil fortune across the world’s top sporting leagues.

This, of course, is much less concerning than the fact NBA ticket prices are outpacing what a working-class family can reasonably afford, but still shows how quickly out of hand things are getting.

Is it all worth it? As great as he is, what kind of performance can Shai Gilgeous-Alexander provide that could possibly justify $400 million? More importantly, what kind of bizarre new clothes can he buy with that much money and will they be worth it?

I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but they are worth pondering. I’ll just be sitting here on my couch watching SGA highlights of clutch shots and buzzer-beaters on a social media site another rich guy paid $44 billion for.

Showout Shai ⛈️

SGA shines bright in the big moments. Peep some of his most clutch shots from 2022-23 👀#BestOfNBA pic.twitter.com/b8j21EVEif

— NBA (@NBA) July 27, 2023