'70s NBA legend questions Jaylen Brown's new contract

Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown Nell Redmond-USA TODAY Sports

'70s NBA legend questions Jaylen Brown's massive new contract

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Darryn Albert | Last updated 8/11/23

The Boston Celtics are all-in on Jaylen Brown, but the underhanded free-throw guy still needs some convincing.

Speaking this week in an interview with NBA host Joy De’Angela, retired Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry said that he does not believe Brown is worth his gigantic new extension with the Celtics. Boston gave Brown a five-year, $304 million supermax earlier this offseason, the richest contract in league history.

“That’s just hard for me to believe,” said Barry of the Brown supermax. “You know, his average in the playoffs for them is 18.5 points a game. 18.5 points a game and he’s gonna make $69 million in the last year of his contract. 18.5 points a game, that’s nothing.

“To pay somebody that kind of money — and he’s a nice player, I really like him — but man, he’s gotta improve his game,” Barry added. “[Brown] turns the ball over too much, he tries to force things. So [does] his teammate [Jayson] Tatum. That’s one of the reasons they lost to the Warriors [in the NBA Finals] two seasons ago. They make too many turnovers.”

You can see the full clip of Barry’s remarks below.

Rick Barry is NOT a fan of Jaylen Brown’s new contract. pic.twitter.com/Q0NAYOUymA

— Joy De’Angela (@joydeangela) August 11, 2023

For a guy like Barry, an eight-time All-Star and NBA champion who retired more than four decades ago, the salaries thrown around these days have to be shocking. He is spot-on, too, about the noticeable flaws in Brown's game, many of which became evident when Tatum was injured early in Game 7 of this year’s Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics were sandblasted by the Miami Heat with Brown as the No. 1 option.

But on the other hand, contracts like Brown’s are about to become the norm in the NBA, especially as basketball-related income (which has a direct effect on the league’s salary cap) continues to increase. An expected bump to the NBA’s $2.6 billion per-year TV deal (which expires in 2025) could send player salary figures rocketing to the moon even more.

Brown, a homegrown player who was drafted by the Celtics in 2016, was only eligible to get a supermax from Boston. With the Celtics – who can go over the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents – not having a realistic pathway to replicating Brown’s production if he were to leave, the two-time All-Star ultimately ended up with the contract that he signed. But that won’t stop Barry, who is very outspoken about the state of the NBA these days, from voicing his opinion that Brown is overpaid.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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