As the former Duke star signs a record breaking contract with the Boston Celtics
When Wilt Chamberlain signed a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers in the late 1960’s it was for a stunning amount of money for a professional athlete: $100,000 dollars. Bill Russell immediately went to the Boston Celtics and asked for $100,001 dollars, figuring that his long list of titles was worth more than Chamberlain’s accomplishments.
They paid him.
The Celtics paid Jayson Tatum Monday too, announcing the largest deal in NBA history: Tatum will be making $315 million over the next five years. That’s $63 million dollars a year, give or take, or roughly enough to send son Deuce and about 954 friends to Duke for a year. Party on!
It’s a huge deal obviously and there’s no sign that Tatum is going anywhere except the rafters of TD Garden whenever he winds his career down.
It’s an insane amount of money for playing basketball but the reason these guys get paid like that, talent aside, is because they love the game and are passionate about developing their skills. We’ve seen that with Tatum in Boston as he’s relentlessly refined his game and his body.
Of course, when Deuce is ready to sign his second or third deal, he’ll probably get about $2.5 billion and we’ll all be shaking our heads, looking back to when we thought his dad was making out like a bandit.
