W ith a new nine-year, $24 billion television deal in place, NBA salaries are at an all-time high. Is the league getting close to a $200 million player? Can 25-year-old Spurs superstar Kawhi Leonard be that guy?

“I already knew it was coming,” Leonard said.

And over the next few years, even more money is expected to flood the NBA.

Leonard signed the first big contract of his career in 2015. It was a five-year, $94 million deal. While a contract worth an average of $18.8 million per season appears to be a lot now, if Leonard continues to perform, it will seem like chump change compared to his next contract. He, and every other NBA player, can thank ESPN and TNT.

The trickle down from that landmark media deal means Leonard is on pace to become the highest-paid Spur ever when he signs the biggest contract in franchise history.

It’s not a topic he expected to broach following a brutal loss earlier this month to the Los Angeles Clippers, but standing a few feet away from the Spurs locker room in a hallway at the AT&T Center, Leonard recalled the trust he put in Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford.

More Information What the Spurs earn Player salaries for 2016-17, highest to lowest: LaMarcus Aldridge: $20.6 million Kawhi Leonard: $17.6 million Pau Gasol: $15.5 million Tony Parker: $14.4 million Manu Ginobili: $14 million Danny Green: $10 million Patty Mills: $3.57 million Dewayne Dedmon: $2.9 million David Lee: $1.55 million Kyle Anderson: $1.2 million Livio Jean-Charles: $1.2 million Dejounte Murray: $1.18 million Jonathon Simmons: $874,636 Davis Bertans: $543,471 Bryn Forbes: $543,471 * Nicolas Laprovittola: $543,471 * By the numbers $94 million: Current NBA salary cap $85 million: Salary floor $8.5 million: Average NBA player salary $1.4 billion: ESPN TV rights annually $1.2 billion: Turner Broadcasting TV rights annually

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The Spurs could have lowballed Leonard. The team known for having players who took less might have enticed Leonard to leave a few million on the table for the good of the franchise, especially since LaMarcus Aldridge (who signed a four-year, $84 million deal) was the next target. At $20.6 million this season, Aldridge is currently the Spurs’ highest-paid player.

But Leonard’s trust paid off.

“The Spurs wanted me,” Leonard said. “They just told me to wait a year.”

Leonard is regarded by many as the best two-way player in the NBA. Coaches praise his defense. Scouts discuss his offensive improvement, remembering the days when he couldn’t shoot.

By request, Popovich often reminisces about Leonard’s pre-superstar status. He recalls the night — June 23, 2011 — when a trade was orchestrated to obtain Leonard. The Spurs had to make a sacrifice of their own, sending George Hill — often labeled Popovich’s favorite player — to the Indiana Pacers. Popovich said it was a fair deal.

“Once he got here, then it became apparently quickly that he was a sponge,” said Popovich of Leonard. “(Assistant coaches) Chip Engelland and Chad Forcier are the two that did the most work with him. I was on his fanny all the time about being a defender, giving him a Bruce Bowen kind of example. That’s where your game starts. That’s what we expect from you. That’s your major role. Those two guys took him and did what you see offensively with him. I mean everything — whether it’s pick and roll, 3-point shot, step back or whatever it is.”

Leonard put in the work. The results? A 2014 NBA Finals MVP, a starting spot in the 2016 All-Star Game sandwiched around a pair of Defensive Player of the Year awards. There was an All-NBA first team award and the runner-up for NBA MVP.

The Spurs felt compelled to reward him.

Such a need could arise again. If the former San Diego State standout maintains this level of play, the next reward could relocate Leonard from the middle of the pack to one of the highest compensated players in the NBA.

But will the Spurs be willing to foot the bill? Again?

The contract

“I remember playing and Jon Koncak signed that deal,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “That started it.”

While television revenue made current NBA deals possible, today’s players can also thank Koncak, who paved the way for big contracts for non-superstars.

In the 1988-89 season, Koncak, a reserve center for the Atlanta Hawks, averaged 4.7 points and 6.1 rebounds. He earned roughly $675,000 that season, more than enough for a guy of his caliber. But the Detroit Pistons thought otherwise.

The dislike between the front offices of the Pistons and Hawks was well known. The relationship worsened when the Pistons signed Koncak, a restricted free agent, to a $2.5 million offer sheet. The Hawks had 15 days to match it.

If the Hawks didn’t match, Koncak would have been the money man in Detroit, making more than Isiah Thomas, the Pistons star point guard who was set to earn $1.1 million, as well as his backcourt partner Joe Dumars ($400,000), and center Bill Laimbeer ($630,000).

“It was pretty simple,” said Steve Kauffman, Koncak’s agent at the time. “He was a good fit in Detroit. They understood who he was as far as a key rotation player.”

Kauffman’s plan was simple: use the leverage the Pistons offered to swing a better deal with the Hawks, who wanted to re-sign Koncak.

The first order of business: re-signing Dominique Wilkins to a five-year, $14.5 million deal. Twenty-four hours later, Atlanta made history.

On September 1, 1989, the Hawks signed Koncak to a six-year, $13.2 million deal, one day after securing Wilkins.

Koncak was no Wilkins. Not even close. But the Hawks felt Koncak was too important to lose, and overpaid to keep him.

Kauffman remembered going home to watch ESPN hours after completing Koncak’s deal. He saw a split screen of Bo Jackson’s combined salary in football and baseball in one season. He calculated Jackson was earning around $2.3 million. Koncak was scheduled to make $2.5 million in Year 1 of the six-year pact.

The enormity of the deal transformed his last name around the NBA. His new alias? “Jon Contract.”

“I chuckled at first,” said Kauffman of the nickname. “Jon was a nice kid who was embarrassed by making the money.”

Sports Illustrated wanted to photograph Koncak with his arms raised in the air while money was falling from the sky.

“I said to Jon, ‘We don’t want to do that,’” Kauffman said. Koncak attempted to convince his agent how the cover would make Kauffman look good.

Kauffman’s retort: “I said, ‘It would make you look silly.’”

Koncak proceeded with the story and photo. In the right lower corner, a caption read: “Koncak says he really can’t justify what the Hawks offered him. But he adds, ‘What was I supposed to do? Say no?’”

Kauffman said Koncak felt so guilty about his salary following the deal, he never let teammates pick up the dinner tab.

“I think sometimes it hurt him in the long run more than it helped him,” Kauffman said.

The 1989-90 NBA salary cap was $9.802 million, an increase of $2.6 million from the previous season; hence, players were prepared for teams to bid more for their services. But few expected reserves such as Koncak to receive such a significant piece of the pie.

Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote: “Through no fault of his own, Koncak happened upon the prospect of big money. He was caught in a crossfire of large, unmarked bills; and as the tallest point, he was bound to collect plenty of shrapnel.”

Bombs away

“There has always been money floating around,” Utah Jazz forward Boris Diaw said, “there is just more of it than ever before.”

The shrapnel from Koncak’s era continues to spread, despite a few disruptions (NBA lockouts) over the years. Comparing Koncak’s contract to LeBron James, who is the highest paid player in the NBA, that’s almost an 800 percent increase from the 1988-89 season to 2016-17.

In 1996, the first $100 million players were introduced.

With no restricted free agency in the NBA’s six-year, $5 billion collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the Orlando Magic didn’t have mechanisms in place to keep Shaquille O’Neal from signing a seven-year, $121 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Alonzo Mourning signed a contract worth $112 million with the Miami Heat, then Washington Bullets re-signed Juwan Howard to a multiyear deal worth $100 million.

The NBA salary cap for the 1996-97 season was $24.3 million. Now it is $94 million.

Said one NBA agent who recently helped negotiate multiple $100 million-plus deals: “(When) guys like Juwan Howard (were) getting $100 million, everyone was saying, ‘Oh, God!’ Then two years later, Kevin Garnett.”

In 1997, after turning down a six-year, $102 million deal offered by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Garnett’s agent, Eric Fleisher, issued a statement informing the team he would not re-sign. Afraid of losing their biggest star in franchise history, the Timberwolves increased their offer. On Oct. 1, 1997, a 21-year-old Garnett signed what was then the biggest contract in professional sports, a six-year, $126 million deal, making him the highest paid player in the NBA.

“I want to see his check,” then-Timberwolves guard Stephon Marbury told reporters after Garnett’s deal. “Bob Cousy and those guys have to be sick to their stomachs.”

Fleisher called Garnett’s deal a “precedent-setting contract.” He recalled the “shock” it triggered, and how many pinpointed Garnett’s deal as the cause of the 1998-99 NBA lockout.

Said Fleisher: Garnett’s deal “was the last straw.”

Owners set out to limit salaries, and eventually won the battle after six months and 19 days. The new CBA added maximum salaries, and a new tax system which penalized teams for exceeding the salary cap.

Asked about the effect Garnett’s deal had on today’s NBA salaries, Fleisher said: “You can make the argument that fueled the fire for everything that’s followed. That has enabled an increase in players’ salary moving forward over the next 20 years. There’s always a benchmark that people point to, and when you’re negotiating there is a tendency to say, ‘He got this, and my guy deserves this.’ Kevin was certainly a great player, but at the time he got it, he wasn’t yet a great player. He was a very talented young player who everybody predicted (to be great).

“The dynamics today are very different than they were then. Part of the uproar over Garnett’s contract, which you don’t see today, is that you did not have the climate, you didn’t have the money that you see today based on the TV deal. The other part of that is Garnett, when he got his deal was 21. He hadn’t yet been an all-star or all-pro, or anything else. They were really betting on his upside and what he was eventually going to develop into.”

New financial landscape

With the current cap at a record high $94.143 million, nothing can stop players from signing astronomical deals. Superstars are not the only ones reaping the benefits of a $24 million jump in the cap, though. The middle is victorious, too.

Under CBA rules, teams must spend at least $84.729 million of the salary cap. If clubs fail to reach the cap floor, the unspent money is distributed to players on the roster.

“Let me say this,” Rivers said. “Guys aren’t getting it if it’s not there.”

The 2016 free agency class got it, with a cherry on top.

Timofey Mozgov averaged 6.3 points and 4.4 rebounds last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He signed a four-year, $64 million deal with the Lakers. That’s roughly $16 million per season, a raise from the $4 million he earned in Cleveland.

The Lakers weren’t done, either. Luol Deng: four years, $72 million. Jordan Clarkson: four years, $50 million.

The Lakers spent $186 million for three players. The team’s payroll this season is $94,254,837 million, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

Those contracts are nothing compared to the Memphis Grizzlies re-signing Mike Conley to the largest contract in league history in total value: five years, $153 million.

If Leonard went the length of his contract, which includes a player option year, he would hit free agency after the 2019-20 season. Conley is scheduled to make $32.5 million that season. Leonard would make $21.3 under his option.

The Heat re-signed Hassan Whiteside to a four-year, $98 million deal. Last season, Whiteside made roughly $980,000. Making $22 million this year, Whiteside is now one of the top 20 highest paid players in the NBA.

Harrison Barnes signed a four-year, $95 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks after the Golden State Warriors won prize free agent Kevin Durant.

The Washington Wizards re-signed Bradley Beal for five years at $128 million. Nicolas Batum agreed to a five-year, $120 million deal to remain in Charlotte. And C.J. McCollum signed a four-year, $108 million extension in Portland.

According to Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal, NBA teams dished out a more than $3 billion on contracts over the summer. A big reason for the record total is that teams are required to spend at least 90 percent of the cap. In the past, the requirement was 75 percent.

“That’s the key factor, and that didn’t exist at the time with Garnett,” Fleisher said. “But now teams have to spend it, and you have to decide who you’re going to spend it on. With the cap being as high as it is, you can’t just spend it on one player and have that eat up all your cap. You’ve got to spend it on multiple players, and that has caused some guys to get paid very, very well.”

Sam Mitchell, who earned roughly $12 million in his 13-year career as a player before becoming a coach in the NBA, added: “If you don’t get paid this go-around, the only person you have to blame is yourself. No one else.”

Timing is everything

“With this new deal it’s going to be crazier for the newer guys,” the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili said. “It’s about timing and it’s just we have a great product and people love it.”

In the current financial climate, there are no losers. But it could be said the 2015 free agency class missed out.

The NBA has just started to feel the influx of new television revenue, which is evident by the recent contracts distributed. If there is a negative, it’s only visible when comparing salaries. Only then would a player of Leonard’s caliber be considered underpaid.

Leonard signed his contract months before the new television deal was announced. He’s making $17.6 million this season, definitely not bad income when looking from the outside. But Leonard’s salary is just the 34th highest in the NBA, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

Just above Leonard, at the No. 33 spot sits Deng, who is banking $18 million. And at No. 82? Reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry at $12.1 million.

Before the TV deal, rumors were surfacing, but there was nothing concrete.

Had Leonard’s reps been sure the new revenue would be available, Leonard might have bet on himself and signed the qualifying offer with the Spurs last year. If he had taken that route, Leonard could have signed a deal worth more than $100 million over the summer.

But $94 million was available, and Leonard took it. Unless something dramatic occurs, Leonard isn’t expected to opt in after the 2018-19 season. At that point, he will be eligible to receive another max deal, this time for 30 percent of the salary cap, instead of 25 percent, as he will be in the 7-9 year bracket in NBA service time.

Leonard could also choose to sign a two-year deal with a player option for the second year. He could then decline his option and be eligible for an even bigger deal, similar to what James before signing his three-year, $100 million deal.

Leonard will have 10 years of service in the NBA after the 2020-21 season. At that point, he will be eligible for the super-max deal, which is currently 35 percent of the cap.

Simply put: Expect Leonard’s next deal to eclipse Conley’s $153 million.

$200 million man

“If the money allows you to pay a player that much, then you’ve got to do it,” a former Western Conference executive said. “You can’t say, ‘The money is there, but he’s not worth it.’ Then guess what, you don’t get that player. Somebody else is going to scoop him up.”

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association are negotiating a new CBA that should be completed before the Dec. 15 deadline, when both parties can opt out.

With so much money at stake, who wants another lockout?

When the money train arrives again next summer, it will be loaded with more riches, as the salary cap projection for the 2017-18 season is $102 million.

In 3-5 years, some agents and NBA general managers expect the cap to reach $110-113 million. If those figures hold, the NBA could be on the verge of its first $200 million player.

“It has to,” Rivers said of a $200 million contract arriving. “As long as the revenue keeps growing.”

Who will be the first player to sign a $200 million deal?

“Russell Westbrook,” predicted one NBA scout.

“LeBron, Westbrook, or James Harden,” added a Western Conference GM.

“No idea,” said a laughing Ginobili, “and no interest at all. I’m about to be out, so I don’t care.”

Said Fleisher: “I can’t predict who it will be. Do I think it will happen? I do.”

Some league executives suggest Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns will be the first. Andre Wiggins’ name is mentioned, too.

How about Leonard?

“If it were up to me, he would be the first guy other than LeBron,” an NBA agent responded. “Anthony Davis, LeBron and him.”

“The thing about him, though, is he doesn’t beat his chest,” the former executive said. “A lot of people associate the guy earning the money when he is demonstrative. Now here’s a guy that goes out and quietly does his work, and even though he’s getting it done statistically, and maybe because he’s in a small market, you may not think he’s worth $200 million.

“It’s a tricky situation when you say a guy is worth that amount of money. You’ve seen some guys that were players that teams said, “We’re going to have to move him because we can’t pay him.’ No, it’s not that you can’t pay him, it’s that you don’t think he’s worth that money. … So it’s not about Kawhi, it’s how do they value him?”

Added another NBA agent, “That’s the question with the Spurs. This guy is looking at $28 million (per year) in three years. Will the Spurs do that? Will they reward him for being such a good player, or will they reward their system and go find someone who is just like him, or who they think is just like him?”

The feeling in Leonard’s camp is he will take no discounts on the second contract. When asked about the potential of a $200 million deal, Leonard responded: “I don’t just play for the contract. I’m playing for the game. I’m not playing to get a $40 million (per year) or a $200 million contract.”

The Spurs have benefited from the “Big Three” of Tim Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker taking discounts their entire careers.

Add in the $14 million he’s earning this season and Ginobili’s career earnings will be an estimated $125 million. Ginobili said he never attempted to shop any offer the Spurs made. Asked if he did, could he have earned more?

“Maybe if I would’ve been more out there and waiting and listening to other (teams),” Ginobili said. “But I was pretty clear that I wanted to be here. Once I talked to the Spurs and they gave me an offer that I thought was good enough, I accepted it. It’s not like, with this I’m going to go shop and see what’s out there. I always made a deal without listening to anybody else.”

“It’s hard to make guesses about things that never happened.”

Few will deny the NBA is in a great place, as popularity is at an all-time high. It’s the reason ESPN and TNT spent so much to maintain ownership of television rights.

Fans are watching, and networks are making money. That means increased revenue for the NBA, which translates to players collecting more.

Asked if he’s surprised how much the financial landscape has grown in the NBA, with both players and owners benefiting, Fleisher said: “It would be easy for me to say yes only because if you look at professional sports, you look at the growth of professional sports, more importantly if you look at the globalization of the NBA, and you look as what’s happened in TV, you could make an argument that this could happen. But the fact that it’s happened so quickly that it has, it’s surprising.”

jyoung@express-news.net

Twitter: @JabariJYoung