LAS VEGAS (AP) — Anthony Davis is under contract to the Los Angeles Lakers for the next five seasons, after agreeing to an extension that comes with the highest per-season average salary in NBA history.
Davis and the Lakers have agreed on a three-year, $186 million contract extension, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul said Friday. ESPN first reported that the Lakers and Davis struck the deal.
At an average value of $62 million per season, the extension becomes the richest annual agreement in league history, surpassing the average of $60.8 million per season that Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown got last month as part of his five-year supermax deal worth up to $304 million.
Davis is an eight-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection and was picked to the league’s 75th anniversary team. He is coming off a season in which he averaged 25.9 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists on a career-best 56% shooting — numbers that represent one of the best years of his career.
The deal takes effect with the 2025-26 season. Davis will make about $40.6 million this coming season, then $43.2 million in 2024-25 — before the extension kicks in and carries through 2027-28. It will push Davis’ career on-court earnings to roughly $500 million by the time the contract expires, and in the final three years of the deal he’ll make about $750,000 for every regular-season game on the Lakers’ schedule.
When healthy, he and LeBron James are still one of the most formidable 1-2 punches in the NBA. They led the Lakers to the 2020 NBA title and helped the team reach the Western Conference finals this past season — where they were swept by eventual champion Denver.
Over his first 11 seasons, Davis has averaged 24 points and 10.4 rebounds. He has scored at least 50 points in a game five times, not counting the 52 points he had in the 2017 All-Star Game — which was a record until Boston’s Jayson Tatum scored 55 in the All-Star Game this past February.