Josh Hart did not need a long speech to show love for his good friend’s life-changing payday. The New York Knicks guard reposted Shams Charania’s report that Los Angeles Lakers star Austin Reaves intends to sign a four-year, $185 million maximum contract to stay in Los Angeles.
Hart kept his caption simple. “Sheeshhhh AR,” he wrote, with a row of money bag emojis attached.
The number is historic. The deal includes a player option for the final season in 2029-30. Reaves declined his $14.9 million player option to clear the way for the new max.
Reaves now owns the richest contract ever given to an undrafted player in NBA history. He arrived in Los Angeles on a two-way deal back in 2021 and turned himself into one of the most reliable scorers and playmakers in the league, raising his scoring average in each of his first five seasons.
He clears the previous record set by Fred VanVleet, whose three-year, $130 million deal with the Houston Rockets in 2023 had stood at the top for three years. Naz Reid and his five-year, $125 million extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves now sits third on that list.
Reaves averaged a career-high 23.3 points last season on 49% shooting, to go with 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds. He played just 51 games while dealing with calf and oblique injuries, then bounced back in the playoffs and posted 20 points per game across six postseason outings before the Lakers fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Hart and Reaves grew close as USA Basketball teammates at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and the two are well known for their shared love of golf in the offseason. So Hart celebrating his guy cashing in made all the sense in the world.
The timing works out nicely for Hart, too. He just wrapped a championship run with the Knicks, who captured the franchise’s first title in 53 years. Now he gets to watch a close friend secure the bag in Los Angeles.
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