Jayson Tatum won’t be spending his historic contract money.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the Boston Celtics player is fresh off a NBA National Championship win and agreed to a five-year $315 million supermax contract extension, which marks the richest in the league’s history, according to Bleacher Report and Chris Haynes of TNT Sports.
However, Tatum will not be touching the money earned from his contract, as AFROTECH™ already told you. He made a deal with his mother, Brandy Cole — who he describes as an “overseer” because she handles his finances — that he would rely on endorsements and sponsors rather than his contract earnings.
“We had a deal before I got drafted that I couldn’t spend the money I make from the Celtics, that we have to live off endorsements,” Tatum said during an interview with “In Depth with Graham Bensinger.” “Her and my accountant agreed. They didn’t know that I would make as much as I did off the court. So, in my mind, I gotta spend that money. I gotta enjoy it.”
This still worked out in his favor. His sponsorships have led him to pocket $13 million, Forbes reports. Tatum’s sponsors and endorsements include Jordan Brand, Gatorade, Subway, NBA 2K, and Ruffles. The plant-based candy brand he co-founded, Smalls Wins, is also working with Walmart.
The decision to avoid spending his contract earnings might be rooted in Tatum’s background, where even an extra $100 to save was unheard of for the mother-son duo.
“I think we just have a different level of appreciation,” Tatum’s mother, Cole, explained in the same video. “In some ways, it hindered because there’s things that are very new to us now, even from like investing or, you know, different levels of assets and never had that, you know, I’ve never even had an extra $100 a month to put away in investments or savings. So, in some ways, we had to learn a lot. But I think, for the most part, just we’re not that far removed from living check to check, and he knows what he never wants to go back to.”
