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When Hamilton NBA star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s contract extension kicks in, he will earn more per season than every CFL player combined.
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Montreal Gazette
Montreal Gazette
Jack Todd
Published Aug 25, 2025 • Last updated 8 minutes ago • 4 minute read
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Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dunks during the second half of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves on May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. Nate Billings/AP
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A week into August, the Tiger-Cats honoured Hamilton’s favourite son, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
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Gilgeous-Alexander, in case you don’t know from hoops, is the star of the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, a tall, slender wasp of a man with the reflexes of an alley cat and a knack for baiting defenders into foul calls. He’s also the league MVP, league scoring champion and MVP of the NBA finals, a rare sweep of league honours that carried with it a hefty cash prize.
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How rich is it? When Gilgeous-Alexander’s four-year, US$285-million contract extension goes into effect for the 2027-28 season, he will be earning more than the entire CFL. Not just more than the payroll of the Hamilton franchise or any other single team — more than the league.
Begging the question: How far can the salary spiral and the skyrocketing value of franchises go? Is there a point when the fans who bankroll these vast revenue machines dig in their heels and say enough is enough? Does the wild spending on a pastime indicate a profound malaise in society? Probably — but who is going to stop it?
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When you consider the value of stars like Gilgeous-Alexander to a league with a significant international following, the truth is that he’s underpaid. Gross NBA revenue for the 2023-24 season was US$11.3 billion and a 51 per cent controlling interest in the Boston Celtics just went for more than US$3 billion.
The NBA, a star-driven league, has a formula for paying its stars based on checking certain boxes, including MVP and all-NBA. Because Gilgeous-Alexander checked every box, he was entitled to sign a supermax extension, officially the Designated Veteran Player Extension.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s extension amounts to US$71.25 million per season, or $98.36 million Canadian — almost $44 million more than the current salary cap figure for all nine CFL teams combined. It’s a stunning figure, yet it’s more and more commonplace in the world of big-time professional sport as it hurtles toward the first billion-dollar contract.
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A few CFL players might have noted the disparity between their salaries and NBA paycheques, but surely it would have rankled more had the player come from their own sport. The highest-paid player in the NFL is perpetually underachieving quarterback Dak Prescott of the equally underachieving Dallas Cowboys, who makes US$60 million a year — or $82.8 million Canadian, again substantially more than the entire CFL.
Expos third-baseman Tim Wallach laughs with actor Eli Wallach on the field at Olympic Stadium in Montreal on Sept. 11, 1992. Tim Wallach was affectionately called Eli by his teammates.
I was a city columnist for this newspaper when third-baseman Tim Wallach signed a contract with the Expos that paid him $1 million per year. I tried to put that salary in perspective by breaking it down into the number of games it would take Wallach to earn a teacher’s pay, a nurse’s pay and so on.
It was unfair to single out Wallach. More than three decades later, the extraordinary Shohei Ohtani would sign a 10-year contract worth US$700 million to pitch and hit for the Los Angeles Dodgers — with US$680 million of it paid 10 years after Ohtani signed the deal.
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(On the salary scale, the NHL lags far behind. Auston Matthews earns US$13.25 million as the highest-paid NHL player on a seasonal basis — and given his playoff failures, he’s overpaid at that.)
Understandably, fans who are a couple of months behind on their car payments have trouble relating to Ohtani or Gilgeous-Alexander or Prescott — but the people making the real money are the billionaires in the background. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989 for a paltry US$140 million and despite years of mismanagement from Jones (who suffers from the delusion that he is a football genius) it is the most valuable sports franchise in the world, with a value of US$10.1 billion.
Today, even the NCAA is in on the act. NIL deals (name, image and likeness) mean that Arch Manning, the latest in the famed quarterback dynasty, will make US$6.8 million this year while playing for the Texas Longhorns.
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Times change. As a track and field jock at the University of Nebraska, I got tuition, books, board, room and US$15 a month “laundry money.” That was the rule in what my fellow Husker Johnny Rodgers dubbed the “No Cash At All” NCAA.
Will the upward spiral end? Sadly, I don’t believe so. Sports equals money, unimaginable amounts of money. But if it has to go to someone, let it be genuine stars and good guys like Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
They’re the ones who, like Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton, risk it all every time they step on the floor. All three suffered torn Achilles tendons during last spring’s NBA playoffs.
They get the big bucks for a reason.
Heroes:Brooke Henderson, Julia Schell, Tajon Buchanan, the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Gabby Thomas, Travis Theis, Tyler Snead, Alexander Hollins, Luguentz Dort, Cal Raleigh, Brady Oliveira, Cody Fajardo &&&& last but not least, Ron Turcotte.
Zeros: Daniil Medvedev and the oafish boors in New York who wouldn’t stop booing him, Gianni Infantino, Shilo Sanders, Shedeur Sanders, Deion Sanders, NIL contracts, Wayne Gretzky, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and forever.
@jacktodd.bsky.social
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