The Celtics got below the luxury-tax line on trade-deadline day.
But Jaylen Brown’s incentive-laden contract includes a championship bonus. If Boston wins the title, that’d push its team salary back into the tax.
Bobby Marks of ESPN:
Boston is $358K below the tax.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) May 30, 2022
They become a tax team (which they will rightfully take) if they win the NBA Championship.
Brown has a NBA Championship bonus. https://t.co/VoUJJrDoLq
As Marks said, the Celtics definitely wouldn’t mind paying the tax if they win the championship. Their luxury-tax bill would be small, anyway.
But more significantly, they’d miss out on the tax money typically distributed to non-taxpaying teams – about $11 million this year.
That’d be a boon for the other non-taxpaying teams, who’d get an extra few hundred-thousand dollars by including Boston’s tax payments and splitting the pot 22 rather than 23 ways. So, owners around the league have incentive to cheer for the Celtics in the NBA Finals.
As if those owners weren’t already rooting against Golden State.