After Jaylen Brown blistered the Pacers in Boston’s Recreation 2 victory Thursday evening, all of the speak was about his All-NBA snub and the way it supposedly served because the gasoline for his 40-point fireplace. Brown downplayed this idea: “We’re two video games from the Finals, so actually I do not bought the time to offer a f—,” he stated of the All-NBA dialog. 

Perhaps he is telling the reality. One thing tells me he is not. Professional athletes, actually the most effective of them, will hunt for the tiniest seeds of motivation. And there is nothing incorrect with that. Brown has each proper to imagine he ought to’ve made a minimum of third-team All-NBA. He is clearly not alone in that sentiment. 

Why did not he make it? To start with, Jayson Tatum — who made the First Staff — is considered Boston’s famous person whereas the remainder of the crew is assigned extra of an mixture valuation. To a level, I really agree with this. And you may argue that there are 15 gamers extra deserving of choice over Brown. I’d’ve put Brown on the third crew over Domantas Sabonis on the very least, nonetheless.

One other potential cause that Brown was left off a 2024 All-NBA crew is that he made second-team All-NBA in 2023, which earned him roughly an additional $100 million on the record-breaking five-year max contract he signed with Boston final summer time that might find yourself being price over $300M. 

Let me restate that: Jaylen Brown goes to make an additional 100 million {dollars} as a result of he made an All-NBA crew in 2023. Had he not made an All-NBA crew, the Celtics solely might’ve paid him $189M over 4 years. 

The explanation for this huge pay bump lies within the CBA weeds that qualify a participant to make 35% of the overall wage cap moderately than maxing out at 30% if he makes All-NBA within the yr of the extension, or in two of the earlier three years. 

So let me ask you: If you happen to had been a voter and also you had been selecting between two gamers with comparatively equal All-NBA circumstances, however one in all them had already gotten the complete super-max cash and one in all them nonetheless wanted the All-NBA distinction to safe high greenback, would the monetary fallout issue into your vote?

I am not a voter, but when I used to be, I’d have bother sleeping at evening if I price a participant tens of tens of millions of {dollars} as a result of I put a test mark subsequent to any individual’s title. Brown’s bag is full. Tyrese Haliburton’s isn’t. Or was not, till he made the Third Staff this week.

To be honest, neither Sabonis nor Devin Booker stood to make any extra money with their choice, and Brown in all probability ought to have made it over each these guys. However voters do not know the result once they’re filling out their ballots. What they did know is that Haliburton, who was the second-lowest Third-Staff vote getter, wanted this All-NBA nod to make an additional $45M on the extension he signed final summer time, and that Brown did not. 

Voters shouldn’t carry the ability, or burden, to make that distinction. They shouldn’t be requested to resolve, both immediately or not directly by way of the downstream results of the decrease salaried allocations, who will get paid and who does not. Not with this type of cash at stake. 

Exterior of Haliburton, if voters had been going to err on the aspect of somebody with a reliable case who additionally wanted the nod for his max cash, Tyrese Maxey would’ve been the man. By not making one of many three groups, Maxey misplaced $40M on the extension he is about to signal with the 76ers this summer time. 

Now perceive, this column should not be confused with an assertion that Maxey ought to have made the crew. He had a case as one in all 5 gamers in all the league to common 25 factors and 6 assists on a minimum of 37% 3-point taking pictures. Are Booker’s two extra factors and fewer than one further help per sport a cause for Maxey’s subsequent contract to be $40M lighter?

On the finish of the day, nonetheless you may reply that query, having that a lot management over that form of cash is simply too heavy a burden for voters, who understandably wish to be untainted of their evaluations, to hold.

Sadly, that is the setup proper now, and so long as that is the case, there are at all times going be monetary implications at the back of voters’ minds. I believe it was a minimum of a part of the rationale Brown bought “snubbed.”