Crickex Sign Up reports that the NBA’s long-anticipated new broadcast deal has finally been finalized. Despite ending its partnership with TNT, the league surprised many by extending its contract with ESPN and signing fresh deals with NBCUniversal and Amazon. This monumental agreement will take effect starting in the 2025–26 season and run through 2035–36, spanning 11 years with a staggering total value of $76 billion.
To put that into perspective, Crickex Sign Up notes that the NBA’s previous broadcast deal—already considered astronomical—was worth $24 billion over nine years, making the new contract more than three times larger. While this deal will impact many aspects of the league, the most immediate and visible change will be in player salaries. When the last TV deal kicked in, the NBA salary cap skyrocketed. In the 2016–17 season alone, the cap jumped to $94 million—an increase of $24 million over the previous year.
That sudden surge led to a flurry of overpaid contracts for mid-level players, with $20 million-per-year deals flying off the shelves—many of which later became burdensome “toxic assets.” With the new deal arriving next summer, a similar scenario is likely to repeat itself. A wave of players is poised to benefit directly from this broadcast revenue boom. Some franchises are already betting on this outcome.
Take the Boston Celtics, for example. Over the past month, they’ve locked in nearly every key contributor from their recent championship run. From superstar Jayson Tatum and backcourt leader Derrick White to valuable role players like Sam Hauser, Xavier Tillman, and Luke Kornet, Boston acted quickly. However, salary cap experts were quick to warn that the Celtics could face a financial crunch by 2025–26 when Tatum and Hauser’s new contracts take effect and Jaylen Brown’s supermax enters its second year. At that point, the team’s payroll could reach $225 million, with a projected luxury tax bill nearing $210 million. But if the salary cap rises dramatically next summer, those costs could be softened by tens of millions.
Other Eastern Conference teams such as the Pistons, Raptors, Magic, and Cavaliers have also begun preparing for the anticipated salary cap explosion. Several stars from the 2021 draft class have already received max contract extensions—Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes, Franz Wagner, and Evan Mobley among them. Critics argue that some of these deals, particularly for Wagner and Mobley, were overvalued. But if the cap sees a significant increase in 2025, these $200 million-plus deals will seem far more reasonable within the new financial framework.
While none of these young stars have quite reached elite status yet, Crickex Sign Up believes they’ve benefited from excellent timing and will go down as the first major winners of this new salary boom era. By next summer, expect more players to test the market. Veterans like Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving may use the cap jump as a chance to land one final lucrative deal before retirement.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on Houston’s rising duo—Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun. For various reasons, neither has signed an extension with the Rockets yet. As the saying goes, some songs are best listened to quietly, and some dreams are better chased from afar. But if both players show continued growth next season, Crickex Sign Up expects them to receive serious offers in restricted free agency—possibly even max deals that Houston might struggle to match.