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Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton are busy at work, with both of their teams trailing 1–0 in their respective conference finals. But whether or not they get a ring, the media members who cover the league just voted the pair into enormous future raises.
Both young superstars were selected to the all-NBA teams announced Wednesday, with Edwards getting a second-team honor and Haliburton on the third team. The selections unlock the supermax extensions for both players as part of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
According to Bobby Marks, the ESPN expert on the CBA, both players are set to earn an extra $41 million based on the terms they negotiated last offseason. Now, their five-year extensions will top out at $245 million instead of the max rookie extension, which tops off at $204 million.
The all-NBA votes are financially fraught. One player getting the nod onto one of the three teams can drastically change a team’s cap sheet. Edwards’s raise will bring the Timberwolves further into the luxury tax in the coming years, raising more questions about how ownership will handle the roster, whenever Glen Taylor and Alex Rodriguez’s arbitration hearing is settled.
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey received just 16 votes despite a breakout season, putting him more than 50 votes away from getting the same raise Edwards and Haliburton got. That might hurt Maxey’s pockets, but his extension topping out at $205 million saves the Sixers money and gives a team already full of cap space more flexibility to build around Maxey and Joel Embiid.
Jalen Brunson—who might be willing to cut the Knicks a stunningly large break on his extension anyway—isn’t eligible for the supermax despite earning his first all-NBA honor on the second team because he signed with New York as a free agent. Had he stayed in Dallas with the same success, he would be.
Meanwhile, Celtics star Jayson Tatum became supermax eligible last season and earned his third consecutive first-team all-NBA nod. This summer, he is eligible to sign a five-year extension worth up to $315 million.
Perhaps the most modest bonus went to Kings star Domantas Sabonis, who was voted to the league’s all-third team after getting named to the second team a year ago. He netted an extra $1.3 million for the honor as part of his contract incentives. Celtics guard Jaylen Brown missed his second all-NBA appearance by 20 points to Suns star Devin Booker, costing him a $2.2 million bonus.
