Beijing time on November 23, Celtics star Jason Tatum renewed his contract with the team in advance, signing a five-year $195 million maximum salary contract. Tatum was only 22 years and 8 months old when signing this billion-dollar contract. Even in today's NBA, where billion-dollar contracts are "flying all over the sky", there are only 7 players like him who have obtained billion-dollar contracts to achieve wealth and freedom when others just graduated from college.
Under the age of 23, signing a 100 million yuan contract, the threshold is actually quite high. In addition to having the core strength to build a team, the age to enter the NBA and the time to renew the contract are also critical. Take Tatum as an example. He entered the NBA at the age of 19 and completed an early renewal at the end of the third season of his career. Only by this can he get a billion yuan contract before the age of 23. If he was 20 years old when he entered the NBA, or waited until the four-year rookie contract ended before renewing his contract, he would not be able to accomplish this feat. For example, Mitchell, who entered the NBA in the same session with him and received a 5-year $195 million contract extension today, was not able to join the ranks because he was 21 years old when he entered the NBA.
In addition to Tatum, Kings player Fox also received a billion-yuan contract before the age of 23. Like Tatum, he entered the NBA in 2017. When he signed a five-year $163 million contract, he was 22 years and 11 months old.
In 2018, Booker and Sun signed a five-year $158 million renewal contract. Booker was not even 22 years old at the time. He was born in October 1996, three months before he was 22 years old.
goes further, Antetokounmpo is also in this rank. In the summer of 2017, he signed a four-year, $100 million contract with the Bucks when he was only 22 and a half years old. Now, there is only one year left for this 100 million yuan contract, and Antetokounmpo’s next contract is likely to exceed 200 million US dollars.
In addition to Tatum, Fox and Antetokounmpo, the other three players who received a billion-dollar contract before the age of 23 are all from the same team, and that is the Timberwolves. In the summer of 2018, the Timberwolves and Towns renewed their contract in advance and signed a five-year $158 million contract. Downs was 22 and a half years old at the time. In October 2017, the Timberwolves and Wiggins renewed their contract early and signed a five-year contract. The annual contract renewal was $148 million, and Wiggins was 22 years and 8 months old.
And the first Timberwolves under the age of 23 to get a 100 million yuan contract is Kevin Garnett. In 1997, Garnett, who was still under 22, signed a six-year, $126 million early renewal contract with the Timberwolves. Such a big contract was very rare in that era, and even caused Marbury to leave.
It is foreseeable that as NBA wages get higher and higher, more young talents will join the ranks in the future. Maybe in a few years, stars who are under 23 years old and get a $200 million contract will be born.
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