The top salary earner! Salary cut by 30 million! Adu: I want to live in Houston forever!

Everything is ready, all we need is the east wind!

This sentence is extremely appropriate to use to evaluate the Rockets.

Just when everyone thought Houston was just trying to make a quick buck, thunderous news broke:

The Rockets officially announced: The team renewed Kevin Durant's contract in advance!

According to reporter Shams, the contract is worth 90 million over two years, with player options included in the second year.

According to the labor agreement, Durant could have easily received a two-year maximum salary of US$120 million, but this time he did not. Instead, he took the initiative to cut his salary and lose 30 million. This 30 million may not be serious for Durant, but the current Rockets lack exactly this link.

After this contract extension, Durant's total career guaranteed contract salary officially exceeded 598 million, surpassing James' total career salary of 583.9 million in one fell swoop, becoming the highest-paid player in NBA history.

Looking back at Adu's career trajectory, from the Thunder to the Warriors, from the Nets to the Suns, and now to the Rockets, let's simply count his salary:

9 years with the Thunder: 109 million in income, 4 scoring titles + 1 MVP;

3 years with the Warriors: 81.45 million in income, 2 championships + 2 FMVPs;

Played for the Nets for 3 years: income of 117 million, averaging 29+7+6 per game;

Played for the Suns for 3 years: income of 143 million, still 26+6+4;

Judging from salary and team performance, Durant's career can be called a legendary story. The first half is "The Revenge of the Prince", and the second half is "The Legend of the Lone Hero".

When he was with the Nets, he teamed up with Irving and Harden to form the Big Three, which was once highly anticipated, but in the end injuries and internal friction shattered the dream; while in the Suns, he once again teamed up with Booker and Beal to build a superstar lineup, but reality brought him back to his original form.

But what is commendable is that despite repeated failures, this superstar never gave up.

According to statistics from the NBA official website, Durant has averaged 25+ per game in the past three years, shot over 50% from the field, and over 40% from the three-point range. Looking at history, only Adu is the only one who can maintain this kind of efficiency for more than three years.

Combined with the data of the past five years, he averaged 27.5 points per game, ranking fifth in the league; his three-point shooting rate was 41.5%, ranking sixth in the league. With such a data sheet, when the Rockets decided to bet on him this year, there were still many doubts from the outside world, but it also inevitably gave rise to a long-lost sense of gambling.

As of now, Durant has scored 30,571 points in the regular season, ranking 8th in NBA history; counting forward, Chamberlain ranks 7th (31,419 points), and Nowitzki ranks 6th (31,560 points).

In the new season, Durant only needs to score about 1,000 points to surpass these two seniors. With his average firepower output of 27 points per game, it only takes more than 30 games, that is, in the middle of the new season, to basically surpass his predecessors and go straight to sixth place in history.

As for the fifth position, it is Michael Jordan; currently KD is still 1,721 points away from the god of basketball.

If he can stay healthy, Adu can pull Jordan off the scoring list for at most two seasons. This is another goal worthy of attention during the next two years of his contract.

After the contract extension, reporter Shams broke the news on the show:

"Durant's plan is to end his career in Houston."

Subsequently, Rockets coach Uduka also talked about the contract extension in an interview:

"When he first joined the Rockets, both of us knew that his playing for the Rockets would not be a short time, and we hope he ends his career here."