A max contract is a player contract at the maximum salary the rules allow for that player, set as a percentage of the salary cap based on years of service.
The max contract is the ceiling on a single player's salary, and it is tiered by experience. Under the collective bargaining agreement, a player's maximum starting salary is set at twenty five percent of the cap for players with up to six years of service, thirty percent for seven to nine years, and thirty five percent for ten or more, with special criteria letting some younger stars qualify early for the higher tiers.
The supermax, formally the designated veteran extension, sits above even that: players who meet performance criteria, All-NBA selections chief among them, with their original team, can sign for the thirty five percent tier early, a rule designed to help teams keep homegrown stars and famous for reshaping small market futures when a star qualifies or just misses.
Max money is a status as much as a salary, and the phrase max player does argumentative work in every fan debate about worth. In the record book of the cap era, the largest contracts in history are a chronological exhibit of the cap itself growing. Quiz questions in the business category use the term's tiers as the fact: years of service, percentage of cap, and the supermax criteria are the testable content.
In use"The extension made him a max contract player through his prime."