(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- This offseason, New York Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson signed a four-year, $156.5 million contract extension with the team. That may seem like a lot of money, but it’s $113 million less than he would’ve been eligible for next offseason because of the complex algebra structuring NBA contracts. Brunson made his decision to help free up money to fill out the roster around him with players who can help the team win a championship, something it hasn’t done since 1973.
He’s not the first athlete to do this. Tom Brady, Derek Jeter and Patrick Mahomes did the same thing, but it’s a largely selfless move in a profession where there’s not always a ton of selflessness. “It’s simple,” Brunson said in August on Roommates Show, which he hosts with Josh Hart, a current teammate who Brunson also played with at Villanova University. “I want to be here, I want to show that actions speak louder than just talking about stuff. I want this team to be together for a long time. I want to win here, that’s it.”
Brunson’s decision to sacrifice for the greater good cemented his place in Knicks lore. As a fan, it’s hard to ask more of a player. But could Brunson reenergize the league, too? Yes, the NBA is in a comfortable spot; it tripled its media rights deal in July when it agreed to a $76 billion package with Disney, Comcast and Amazon.com. But the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks averaged only 11.3 million viewers a game, according to Nielsen, a three-year low.
The Celtics went up 3-0 in the best-of-seven series before going on to win 4-1. Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown played well—Brown won the series MVP—but neither put on pantheon-level performances. Slovenian ball handler Luka Dončić averaged nearly 30 points per game for the Mavs, but when he fouled out in Game 3, the series was all but over.
Tatum, Brown and Dončić are among the best players today, but none seems poised to lead the league as it transitions out of an iconic era. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are in their mid- to late-30s, but they’re still great for ratings: Team USA’s gold medal match against France in the Summer Olympics, in which they scored 54 of the team’s 98 points, averaged 19.5 million viewers. It was the most-watched basketball game—pro or college—since 2017.
The NBA has a ton of young, or young-ish, stars. There’s Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies, Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. It’s just that a new megastar hasn’t emerged yet, which opens the door for Brunson.
“The faces of the league are guys with incredible natural abilities,” says Monica McNutt, a basketball analyst for ESPN and Madison Square Garden Network, which broadcasts most Knicks games. “They’re tall, they’re strong, they have long limbs, they’re in the 98th percentile of what an average human looks like.” By comparison, Brunson, at 6-foot-2, 190 pounds, is smaller. But that may actually be his strength, she says: “His ability to be more everyday is something that is unique in terms of it being a connector to fans and an audience.” Even so, he averaged a not-so-pedestrian 28.7 points per game last season, good enough for fourth-best in the league.
Brunson, who first signed with the Knicks in 2022, has other things going for him. Off the court, he has deals with Bose, Delta, Dunkin’, Nike and other brands. He also plays in New York City, the league’s largest TV market. (He grew up in New Jersey and, at Villanova, won men’s college player of the year and a national championship in 2018.) “Cities like Denver and Dallas are fine, but they don’t have that aura like New York does,” says Bob Dorfman, a San Francisco sports marketing analyst. “They don’t have things like Spike Lee sitting courtside. The Knicks are an iconic brand in sports.”
The championship drought hasn’t hurt the team’s valuation: It’s No. 2, at $7.43 billion, according to Sportico, trailing only Curry’s Golden State Warriors, which have won four championships in the past decade. The Knicks haven’t come anywhere near that kind of run. The team was bounced from the playoffs last season in a second-round series against the Indiana Pacers that went seven games. Still, the Knicks are the fourth-most-watched team in the league; their viewership was up 15% per game last season from 2023, according to Nielsen and the NBA.
Brunson’s resigning gave New York the financial flexibility to trade for a center, the All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, whom they got from the Timberwolves. Towns will help the Knicks match up better against the Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers, whom New York beat in the first round last season. Dorfman says having the Knicks advance deep into the playoffs, ideally facing a team such as the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, would be a dream scenario, since LA is the league’s second-largest market. “Those are what kind of matchups really build viewership and make the NBA shine brightest,” he says.
Although the Celtics and Lakers battled for supremacy in the 1980s, and the Chicago Bulls dominated in the 1990s, the era of NBA dynasties might be over. The league has had six different champions in the last six seasons, the first time that’s happened since the 1970s. Its legacy acts have failed to reach the pinnacle, while its newer ones haven’t sustained dominance. Regardless of who’s playing, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants fans to tune in. In November, he told the Old Man and the Three podcast that he wants to make NBA fans “more NFL-like.” “This is changing in a very positive way. But historically, if you asked fans, ‘Are you going to watch the NBA Finals?’ they would say, ‘Who’s going to be in it?’ And if you asked an NFL fan if they were going to watch the Super Bowl, they would never say, ‘Only if the Giants are in it.’ It’s a national holiday.”
Can Brunson help the Knicks be the next great NBA dynasty? Maybe. But the team’s supporters know not to get their hopes up. That’s what failing to win a championship since Richard Nixon was president will do to a fanbase. Regardless, Brunson will have another shot to make the money he passed on in 2028 or 2029, when he’ll be eligible for a four-year, $323 million deal or a five-year, $418 million deal, respectively. The NBA season tips off on Oct. 22, and one thing’s for certain: In the coming months, Brunson will do his best to make sure he didn’t give his team a discount for nothing.
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