Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has done it all.
He’s the reigning NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP. He led the NBA in scoring last season, becoming the first player to do so and win the championship since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000. He has a signature shoe that is highly anticipated and going for multiple times the retail price on resale sites.
And now, he’s the current owner of the NBA’s richest contract.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder reached an agreement on a four-year, $285 million contract extension, adding two years to his existing deal and locking him in for the next six seasons with the reigning NBA Champions.
The deal comes on the heels of Gilgeous-Alexander securing one of the best individual seasons in NBA History. The MVP averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and five rebounds. He went on to lead OKC to its first NBA Championship, securing himself as the greatest player in Thunder history in the minds of most fans.
The deal, despite being Gilgeous-Alexander’s maximum salary and the largest in league history, actually serves as a financial reprieve for OKC.
Had Gilgeous-Alexander waited until after next season, he would’ve been eligible for a five-year, $380 million deal that he certainly would’ve been offered by OKC.
Instead of an average salary of $76.5 million, Gilgeous-Alexander is now locked into an average salary of $71 million. While $5 million may seem inconsequential when salaries are over $70 million, the long-term savings it will provide against the NBA’s highly restrictive repeater tax will be important for an OKC team that is likely to have significant contracts on the books.
No matter the cost, OKC should be, and surely is, happy to have its franchise icon under contract until 2030-31. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren will likely follow in his footsteps in signing a maximum contract extension with OKC this offseason. As long as OKC has those three players, assuming Holmgren continues to improve, it’ll be a title contender, regardless of the supporting cast, some of which is eligible for extensions this summer.
Along with Williams and Holmgren, Lu Dort is extension eligible, as are Ousmane Dieng and Kenrich Williams. It remains to be seen who will sign on for the long term with the Thunder.
But, regardless of how the rest of the offseason goes, OKC has its most important piece of business attended to, and as a result, Gilgeous-Alexander is set to finish out his prime in Oklahoma City.
