The NBA player who gave up $100 million

livemint.com:

When NBA contract extensions make news these days, it’s usually for their eye-popping sums. Today’s top deals are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, paying the league’s best players upwards of $50 million per season. But the contract news that shook up the league on Friday was of an altogether different sort.

A star player looked at what he could have earned—and took more than $100 million less. If Jalen Brunson, the New York Knicks’ star point guard, had waited until next offseason to sign his next contract with the team, he would have been eligible for a five-year, $269.1 million deal. Instead, Brunson reportedly opted to sign an extension this offseason, worth $156.5 million over four years.

ESPN first reported the deal. At first glance, it’s a curious move for any star player to make. But Brunson has always been an unusual success story.

He began his career as a second-round draft pick and worked his way slowly from the bench of the Dallas Mavericks to a starring role in Madison Square Garden, where he has entrenched himself as one of the league’s best scorers and a New York City icon. And giving up a massive payday comes with a benefit. It means that the Knicks, who fought their way to the Eastern Conference semifinals last season, can allocate the savings they’re making on Brunson’s new deal toward bringing the franchise its first championship since 1973.

Brunson “continues to show a willingness to sacrifice for this organization," Knicks president Leon Rose wrote in a statement announcing the extension. Brunson has always made his feelings toward the city and team plain to see. Knicks fans love an underdog, and Brunson—an undersized guard who is nevertheless unafraid of driving into the lane and crashing to