The NBA has become notorious as one of the most luxurious of the major North American sports leagues in terms of contracts offered to its athletes. Paul Pierce isn’t one to pocket watch, but he doesn’t believe everyone deserves the coveted supermax contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Hall-of-Fame forward in fact, has listed just three players who he believes are worthy of such contracts.
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21 players in the NBA are currently earning at least $200 million from their contracts. It would be safe to assume that all these players are All-Stars, but that isn’t the case. Athletes like Franz Wagner, OG Anunoby and Jamal Murray have yet to qualify for such honor yet their contracts ensure them superstardom.
Paul Pierce, himself was a superstar during his time in the NBA but none of his contracts eclipsed $100 million despite it Of course, the NBA didn’t have the pool of money to spend on players as it does now. Regardless, even with the NBA making record profits, Pierce remains against the saturation of such contracts.
“My three max guys right now that are worth it, Wembanyama, Joker and Shai,” Pierce said on the No Fouls Given podcast.
It has been pretty much a consensus belief around the basketball community that these three players are worth every penny possible. However, only one of them is currently on a contract exceeding $200 million.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is still on his rookie max extension, but he did sign a contract extension worth $273 million. But that doesn’t kick in until the 2027-28 season.
Victor Wembanyama is also still on his rookie scale contract, but his annual salary should increase very soon. Nikola Jokic, on the other hand, is on a $276 million contract and is extension eligible following the end of the season.
Although Pierce holds these three in extremely high regard, there are quite a few players who make more money annually than them.
Meanwhile, Pierce’s co-host, Danny Green, is a little bit more open-hearted when it comes to placing players in that upper echelon.
“But I think there’s other guys. I think [Anthony Edwards] is worth a max. He shows up most nights. [Jalen] Brunson is there,” Green said.
Pierce didn’t waste any time interjecting in Green’s statement. He made sure to clarify whether they were on the same page about what the topic of conversation was.
“We are talking $300 million plus. I’ll give you 2 [for Edwards and Brunson], but 3 is a different level. We just really look at the max guys, it’s only 3,” Pierce proclaimed.
Ironically, the first player to eclipse the $300 million threshold was a Boston Celtics player. However, Pierce was able to separate his bias from his former team in this conversation. Jaylen Brown was that player, and shortly after, his running mate Jayson Tatum earned an even larger contract worth $315 million.
Green certainly believes they are worthy of being in that top tier. Pierce, on the other hand, reminded the three-time NBA champion what would happen if that was the case.
“You’re telling me you would be a fired GM quick,” Pierce said.
Surprisingly, Pierce didn’t name those two stars from the Celtics brotherhood, but it’s refreshing to receive an honest outlook. Unfortunately for Pierce, those three stars he mentioned won’t be the only players to receive such illustrious contracts. There will be others whether or not Pierce likes it.
