On January 23, 2025, the Atlanta Hawks lost to the Toronto Raptors. However, the worst part about this loss was the fact that the Hawks’ forward Jalen Johnson suffered a torn labrum in that game. And almost a week later, on January 29th, we found out that he’d miss the rest of the season, requiring surgery to fix his shoulder.

What makes this entire fiasco tragic is the fact that the young forward was riding the high off of signing a massive new contract with the Hawks. So let’s examine the kind of deal the Hawks offered Jalen.

What is Jalen Johnson’s contract with the Atlanta Hawks?

On October 21, 2024, Jalen Johnson signed a $150 million, 5-year rookie scale contract extension with the Atlanta Hawks. A massive deal for the then-22-year-old. This extension has a guaranteed fee of $150,000,000 with an average annual payout, amounting to $30,000,000. However, Jalen will only be able to reap the benefits of this contract when it kicks in during the 2025/26 NBA season.

There are no team or player options in this new contract. This means Johnson will remain with the Hawks for the next 5 years, barring the Hawks waiving his contract or trading him. Speaking of which, there is a trade restriction on Johnson that means he cannot be traded till July 1, 2025. He will become an unrestricted free agent in the 2030/31 NBA season.

How much has Jalen Johnson made from his NBA career?

Jalen Johnson came through Duke University, playing 13 matches for them before declaring for the 2021 NBA Draft. Johnson averaged 11.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game for the Duke Blue Devils team. The Atlanta Hawks picked him in the 1st round as the 20th overall pick.

Following this, he signed a 4-year, $12.89 million rookie scale contract with the Hawks. He debuted for the Hawks in a 113-87 blowout victory against the Dallas Mavericks. Johnson played 4 minutes in that game scoring 6 points from 2 out of 3, 3-point field goal attempts. 

His first contract included a guaranteed fee of $12,888,585 with an average annual payout of $3,222,146. This contract also had team options for the last years. Atlanta exercised the first $2.93 million option for 2023/24 on October 11, 2022. They later did the same in the 2024/25 season for $4.51 million on October 22, 2023.

So far, Jalen Johnson has earned $12, 991, 579 from his contracts with the Atlanta Hawks. But that number will increase tenfold when his new contract runs out. Yes, you read that right, tenfold. Johnson will have earned $162,991,579 in salary by 2029. Sadly, even though we know his salary, there are no accurate estimates regarding his net worth.

All in all, as a 23-year-old, Jalen Johnson has made quite a pretty penny from his NBA contract. And that sum is only expected to increase massively as time goes on. So, here’s hoping he recovers well from his injury and proves that he is worth every cent the Hawks are paying for him!