Devin Booker has reportedly agreed on a two-year, $145 million deal with the Suns that keeps him in Phoenix till 2030. As per the terms of the extension, the Suns will pay Booker $75.46 million in his final year. But on average, he will earn $72.5 million per year, making it the highest annual average salary given to an NBA player in a single contract extension. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s four-year, $285 million extension with the Thunder previously held that record (average annual salary $71.25 million).
During the 2015-16 season, the NBA’s salary cap took an 11% leap from its previous amount to set the new cap at $70 million. In that season, 15 teams, including big markets like the Lakers and Knicks, had salary cap allocations worth less than what Devin Booker is set to earn in 2030.
The Knicks’ salary cap allocations were approximately $59 million 10 years ago. Now, a supermax contract has an annual average above $63 million in the NBA. Suns legend Steve Nash’s entire career earnings are $147 million, just $2 million above Booker’s two-year extension valuation.
This shows the manifolds with which the NBA has expanded and grown over the last decade, as individuals are earning more now than whole teams did back then. This extension pays Booker nearly $1 million per game in that season.
Let’s take a detailed look at Booker’s contract extension. The average annual salary for his extension is $72.5 million, which is:
– $6.04M per month
– $1.51M per week
– $884.1K per game
– $215.7K per day
– $8.99K per hour
– $149.84 per minute
– $2.49 per second
Seeing this update, NBA fans were left in disbelief. They marvelled over Booker’s contract extension and reacted on social media with a mixture of optimism and skepticism.
“Pretty incredible that just 10 years ago, the historically great 2015-16 NBA season, the team salary cap number was $70 million, less than Devin Booker’s single-season salary per season with this extension. Amazing growth”
“Devin Booker will have made 387M+ by age 31… and he’ll still have zero pressure to win a championship”
“$75 million a year seems like overpaying to me.”
“How do you build the rest of the team with one person making $73 mil?”
“DESERVED FOR PUTTING UP WITH THOSE DISGUSTING EARLY SUNS TEAMS IDC”
Several such reactions flooded the internet as Booker secured the second supermax contract of his career. According to Ramona Shelbourne of ESPN, Booker shares his agent, Jessica Holtz, with his former Kentucky teammate Karl-Anthony Towns, and they both signed their first supermax contract extensions negotiated in the NBA in 2022. This becomes the third one she negotiated in her career.
Booker has averaged 24.4 points, 5.2 assists, and 4.0 rebounds in his 10-year Suns career so far. So the question now remains, will he be able to produce like that consistently, three or four years down the line? Or will this become like Bradley Beal’s contract by that time, viewed as one of the hardest to trade and worst in NBA history? Only time will tell. But for now, the Suns have hung a massive potential liability on their shoulders just to prove to Booker that they have faith in him.
