NBA: Knicks sign Jalen Brunson to extension worth reported $156.5M

All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson signed a four-year contract extension worth $156.5 million with the New York Knicks on Friday.

The Knicks confirmed the deal with a social media post, with the value of the deal reported by ESPN and The Athletic.

The extension will kick in for the 2025-26 season and include a player option for the final year.

Brunson could have delayed signing an extension another year, when he would have been eligible to receive a max contract projected to be worth $269 million.

That decision will help the Knicks stay below the salary cap’s “second apron” in 2025-26, giving them more flexibility to pay the rest of their core players. But Brunson is again eligible to sign a new max extension in 2028, his 10th year of service, that would recoup most of the $113 million he is giving up for now.

Knicks teammate Josh Hart, who also played with Brunson at Villanova, appeared to comment on the news when he posted to X, “Build him a statue.”

Brunson is coming off the best season of his six-year NBA career, featuring career highs in scoring (28.7 points per game), assists (6.7 per game) and 3-pointers made (211). He shot 40.1 percent from beyond the arc. Brunson was named an All-Star for the first time, made the All-NBA second team and finished fifth in NBA Most Valuable Player balloting.

In six seasons with the Dallas Mavericks (2018-22) and Knicks, Brunson has averaged 16.9 points, 4.7 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game and shot 48.9 percent from the field, including 39.1 percent from 3-point range.

–Field Level Media/Reuters