New York’s Jalen Brunson accepts $156.5 million, $113 million less than 2025 deal

New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson has agreed to a four-year, $156.5 million contract extension — about $113 million less guaranteed than he is eligible to sign a year from now — his agent Sam Rose of CAA told ESPN on Friday.

The deal, which begins in 2025-26 and will cost Brunson $37.1 million over the next three years, comes with a player option in the fourth year, which would set Brunson up to earn $113 million on a four-year extension worth a maximum of $323 million in 2028 or a new five-year deal worth $418 million in 2029, Rose said.

Brunson, 27, became eligible to negotiate and sign the maximum extension on Friday.

This is what it looks like pic.twitter.com/AKsU33fmby

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 12, 2024

Despite the potential risk of injury and unforeseen complications that come with Brunson’s decision to defer his highest NBA salary, his priority remains maximizing his career with the most talented and deep roster since the 1990s.

The implications of Brunson opting for the four-year, $156.5 million max deal over the five-year, $269.1 million deal through 2025 are huge for the Knicks’ ability to keep this team together and continue to make roster moves to close the gap on the championship. Brunson’s deal keeps the Knicks outside the second apron level of the salary cap, a punitive threshold that severely limits a team’s ability to make trades, sign players and use draft picks.

Brunson’s study of championship-winning organizations and franchise stars—Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees—has given him a model of MVP-level players who crafted their contracts to give their teams the best chance of lasting titles.

Brunson’s arrival to the Knicks on a four-year, $104 million free agent deal two years ago was one of the league’s most transformative acquisitions of the past decade. After starting out as a backup point guard with the Dallas Mavericks, Brunson has blossomed into one of the NBA’s most influential players and leaders. Brunson had his best NBA season in 2023-24, earning All-NBA honors and finishing fifth in MVP voting. He averaged 28.7 points per game and scored or assisted on a franchise-record 3,481 points. Brunson, who had 11 40-point games in the regular season, became the first Knicks player to record 40 points and five assists in four consecutive playoff games, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The New York Knicks are supposed to have gotten better — and undoubtedly more expensive — over the summer. New York signed OG Anunoby to a five-year, $212.5 million deal, trading him to the Brooklyn Nets for Mikal Bridges and the remaining two years of his contract, worth $48 million.

Brunson’s ties to the New York Knicks run deep and reflect his faith in the organization. New York Knicks President of Basketball Operations Leon Rose was Brunson’s agent before he joined the team in 2020. Brunson’s father, Rick, is an assistant coach for the Knicks and was a longtime client of Rose’s during his agent days. The Knicks have surrounded Brunson with a group of former stars from his National Basketball Association championship team at Villanova to create a remarkable synergy on and off the court.

In the modern era, discounts given to NBA players to allow for salary cap flexibility have included San Antonio’s Tim Duncan getting $11 million less than the cap in 2007 to keep Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, Golden State’s Kevin Durant getting $10 million less to keep Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala in 2017, and LeBron James accepting $2.6 million less on a two-year, $101 million deal this season to avoid a second apron for the Los Angeles Lakers.

This time, Brunson is taking a $37 million loss on top of the $113 million total risk of chasing a title with the Knicks.

ESPN’s Bobby Marks contributed to this report.