Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I can’t say I was as shocked as everyone else that the Yankees decided to cut DJ LeMahieu.
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In today’s SI:AM:
💰 Big 12 salary cap?
🏎️ F1 shocker
🏈 Chiefs preview
Suns re-commit to Booker
The NBA has a new highest-paid player.
The Phoenix Suns have agreed to a two-year, $145 million contract extension with star guard Devin Booker that will give him the highest annual salary in the history of the league. Booker has three years remaining on the contract he initially signed in 2022, so the extension will keep him in Phoenix through the end of the ’29–30 season at an average annual salary of $72.5 million. That narrowly eclipses the previous annual salary record set by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s four-year, $285 million contract ($71.25 million per year) that he signed just last week.
The extension brings the full value of Booker’s current contract to $316 million over five years. He will be 33 years old and in his 15th season in the NBA when it runs out. The odds that Booker’s on-court value to the Suns will match his sky-high salary at that point in his career are slim, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Phoenix was foolish to open up the checkbook again.
The Suns are going through a transition period after the decision to go all-in by trading for Kevin Durant and signing Bradley Beal backfired. Phoenix lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2024 and stumbled to a 36–46 finish last season, 11th place in the Western Conference. Durant was shipped off to the Houston Rockets in a massive seven-team deal that was finally consummated over the weekend, and the Suns are also reportedly expected to move on from Beal (likely by buying out his contract). On top of that, the team fired coach Mike Budenholzer after just one season in charge. That comes after Frank Vogel lasted just one season at the helm, and whoever coaches the Suns next will be the franchise’s fourth coach in the past four seasons.
Ensuring that Booker, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, remains in place is a way to provide Phoenix with some much-needed stability as it navigates a period of uncertainty. The timing of the move shows how eager the Suns were to get the deal done. Under the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the players’ union, a contract of five or more years can only be extended at least three years after it was initially signed. Booker signed his previous contract on July 6, 2022, which means the Suns extended him almost as soon as he was eligible.
Booker has endured a lot with the Suns. They went a combined 121–280 in his first five seasons in the NBA, the worst record in the league over that span, before finally making the playoffs for the first time in Booker’s tenure in 2021. Phoenix advanced all the way to the NBA Finals that year before losing to the Milwaukee Bucks. Booker never expressed a desire to leave Phoenix, either during that long losing stretch to start his career or as the Durant-Beal experiment began to feel doomed, and Suns ownership has reiterated Booker’s position with the franchise. Late last season, as the Suns put the finishing touches on their disappointing season, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported that the Rockets would be interested in trading for Booker this summer. Suns owner Mat Ishbia told McMahon that a Booker trade would “never happen.”
“It's silly,” he continued. “So here’s what I’ll tell you: I have Devin Booker in the prime. In order to win an NBA championship, you got to have a superstar. You got to have a great player.”
The Durant trade and the impending departure of Beal put the Suns on a path toward rebuilding. There are a few intriguing pieces in place already, like young scoring threat Jalen Green and defensive stopper Dillon Brooks, who were acquired from Houston as part of the return for Durant. Phoenix is still years away from contending again, but the Booker extension makes it more likely that he’ll be part of the next winning Suns team. Whenever that is.
Around the W
Seattle Storm forward Gabby Williams joins host Maria Clifton to talk WNBA pay equity, her All-Star season and the growth of French basketball.
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The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. A nice overhead assist for Angel Reese.
4. A classic deep three by Caitlin Clark in her return to the lineup.
3. Jackson Chourio’s walk-off hit to complete the Brewers’ sweep over the Dodgers.
2. Jac Caglianone’s 466-foot homer into the fountain at Kauffman Stadium. (The fountain was empty so unfortunately there wasn’t a satisfying splash when the ball landed.)
1. Lionel Messi’s two goals against the Revolution. He’s now scored multiple goals in four straight MLS games, the first player in league history to do so.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Devin Booker’s Historic Extension Provides Stability Amid Suns Shakeup.
