CHICAGO — A two-time All-Star and a two-time slam dunk champion, it’s not hard to love the high-flying Zach LaVine.
And the Chicago Bulls just gave us $215.2 million reasons why.
In what has so far been a blockbuster, super-rich 2022 NBA free agency season, the iconic franchise gave its star player and face of the franchise a super-max extension that will keep him in Chicago for the next five seasons.
Despite meeting with several suitors around the league to immerse in what his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, called as “the full free agent experience,” LaVine had always made it clear “publicly and behind the scenes” that he wanted to stay in the Windy City, according the The Chicago Sun-Times.
And the feeeling was mutual as the Bulls, under the capable hands of basketball operations chief Arturas Karnisovas also wanted to keep the team’s core of Nikola Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso.
The Bulls had an amazing start to the 2021-22 season before injuries and health and safety protocols routinely eviscerated the lineup and eventually torpedoed what would have been a deep post-season run.
A UCLA alum, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound LaVine, who is only 27 years old and at the height of his athletic prime, averaged 24.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 67 regular season appearances last season.
Prior to signing his massive newly-minted contract extension, LaVine had made $61.7 million inhis previous four years with the Bulls.
Zach was picked 13th overall by Minnesota in the 2014 NBA Draft and he remained a Timberwolf for three seasons.
