With the delicate application of pen to paper, the Lakers locked up their center of the future until 2013 and boldly continued to rack up financial commitments for what they hope will be another series of championships.
Andrew Bynum signed a four-year contract extension for $57.4 million Thursday, completing an often tense month of negotiations between the Lakers and Bynum's agent, David Lee.
Bynum, who will make $2.8 million this season, will earn close to $42 million over the first three years of the extension. The fourth year will be a team option for about $16 million.
"This has been a fantastic week for me so far: turning 21, winning our first two games of the season, and now getting this new contract signed," Bynum said in a statement. "This gives me and my family financial security, and more importantly, cements my future with the Lakers, which in my opinion is the best organization in all of professional sports. I couldn't be happier."
The Lakers and Bynum didn't seem to be an entirely happy match earlier this week, with Bynum's agent asking for an average of $17 million a year on a five-year deal and the Lakers countering with an average of $11 million a year over five years.
Lee spent more than a week in Los Angeles trying to negotiate the extension but returned to his New York home Wednesday afternoon without a deal.
Lee quickly returned to Los Angeles on Thursday, however, one day before the NBA contract-extension deadline for players such as Bynum, the 10th overall pick in the 2005 draft.
The two sides came to terms on an average salary of $14.35 million a year.
"I think it's a good deal for both parties," Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. "The option would have been to wait a whole season and even at that point in time, you may not have all the information you necessarily need.
"But we feel that after three years of knowing what kind of person he is, how hard he's worked, and after the training camp he's had, we're comfortable that he'll be back to the way he was playing in January in the foreseeable future."
If an agreement had not been reached, Bynum would have become a restricted free agent in July, though the Lakers would have retained the right to match any offer he received. Bynum also could have signed a one-year deal next season with the Lakers for about $3.8 million and become an unrestricted free agent in July 2010.
