The Hawks Give John Collins $125 Million to Keep the Band Together
The boys are back. For a total of $332 million, the Atlanta Hawks will retain the services of Trae Young and now John Collins for the next five seasons.
This feels like a great deal for everybody involved. Collins turned down a $90 million extension in December because he thought he was worth more money, and he was obviously right to bet on himself. Now, is he a max player like he was reportedly seeking? Probably not. But I'm glad he was able to earn himself an extra $35 million.
And the Hawks get to keep their two young stars together for the primes of their careers, having already proven they're capable of leading a team on a run at a title. Everybody wins.
But about that $90 million Collins turned down. Whether in December or after he had *one* bad game in December, Twitter was quick to clown JC and act like he wasn't going to get more than that. And we obviously see what happened.
Take a hike, losers. John Collins is $125 million richer and is going to be tormenting your teams as an Atlanta Hawk for at least the next five seasons and hopefully even more after that.
It is my humble opinion that this is the most exciting time to be a Hawks fan going into a season in my lifetime. Obviously the 2015 season was an unbelievable run during the year, but nobody knew that was going to happen. Right now, Atlanta is as well-positioned as any team in the Eastern Conference for the next few years and I honestly expect it to at least reach an NBA Finals.
We got the pieces. Now let's run it back.
