{"id":86063,"date":"2025-08-05T07:44:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=86063"},"modified":"2025-08-05T07:44:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:44:36","slug":"so-great-luka-doncic-to-become-the-first-nba-player-with-80-million-salary-plans-to-decline-2028-29-player-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=86063","title":{"rendered":"SO GREAT!! Luka Doncic To Become The First NBA Player With $80 Million Salary, Plans To Decline 2028-29 Player Option"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"m-detail-header mm-detail-header--featured mm-detail-header--content-position-above mm-detail-header--image-size-inline mm-detail-header--in-content-well\">\n<div class=\"m-detail-header--container\">\n<div class=\"m-detail-header--content\">\n<div class=\"m-detail-header--dek\">Luka Doncic reportedly wants to decline his 2028-29 player option to sign a $400 million-plus valued extension with the Lakers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"m-social mm-social--open-web mm-social--below-header\"><\/section>\n<div class=\"m-detail--body\">\n<p>Luka Doncic\u00a0recently inked his\u00a0three-year, $165 million contract extension\u00a0with the\u00a0Lakers\u00a0that put him on the top 25 list of player career earnings of all time, less than a decade into his playing career.<\/p>\n<p>He will become eligible for a historic extension at the end of this contract that could see him\u00a0potentially earn $417 million in five years, making his average annual salary in excess of $80 million.\u00a0Now, sources claim that the Slovenian superstar wants to decline his $57.58 million player option to accelerate his speed of breaking the NBA record.<\/p>\n<p>According to Ashish Mathur of Lakers Daily, Doncic wants to lock in his long-term future with the Lakers and make NBA history in 2028-29 by becoming the first player to sign a $400 million+ valued contract. Jayson Tatum currently holds the record for the highest valued extension overall (not in annual average value of the contract).<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"lakers-potential-plans-after-lebron-james-leaves\" class=\"is-aligned-center\">Lakers&#8217; Potential Plans After LeBron James Leaves<\/h2>\n<p>The next two seasons will potentially see\u00a0LeBron James\u00a0retiring from NBA basketball, or\u00a0at least leave the Lakers after the end of 2025-26. Rich Paul&#8217;s comments have made it clear that James is\u00a0seeing out the final season of his contract\u00a0with the purple and gold and\u00a0won&#8217;t be traded this season.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, Doncic will need a co-star alongside him to lead the Lakers for the foreseeable future when James retires or leaves.\u00a0Fans on\u00a0social media\u00a0have been speculating on whether a superstar like\u00a0Nikola Jokic\u00a0could join him in that season.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers have\u00a0openly admitted\u00a0they want to keep their salary cap space free for the summer of 2027. Jokic has a player option from 2027-28; if he declines that, he could become a free agent at the same time as when the Lakers want to make their big move.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this summer, Jokic\u00a0refused to sign\u00a0a contract extension with the\u00a0Nuggets. While sources claimed it was because he will be eligible to earn $80 million more if he signs an extension next summer, fans have refused to give up on the hope that Jokic might just see out his contract with the Nuggets and eventually join the Lakers as a free agent.<\/p>\n<p>Nikola Jokic would not be eligible to sign the $292 million supermax extension if he leaves the Nuggets to join Doncic. He will only be eligible for the range of a four-year, $240 million contract, which leaves $52 million on the table if he sticks to his loyalty.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to note that in 2024, when Jokic was asked about potentially teaming up with Doncic after the All-Star Game. He\u00a0said\u00a0Doncic would have to leave the Mavericks because he is not leaving the Nuggets. But if the destination has changed to LA now instead of Dallas, maybe the Joker changes his mind?<\/p>\n<p>So the dilemma here for Jokic would be if he values money and loyalty to his team more than his friendship and desire to play with Luka Doncic. We have all seen how close the duo is, especially during the NBA All-Star games. Therefore, this would not be an easy decision for Nikola Jokic if he is considering this in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luka Doncic reportedly wants to decline his 2028-29 player option to sign a $400 million-plus valued extension with the Lakers. Luka Doncic\u00a0recently inked his\u00a0three-year, $165 million contract&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SO GREAT!! 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