Thunder, Gilgeous-Alexander agree to record-setting $285 million extension

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will receive the richest salary for a player in NBA history after the Oklahoma City Thunder signed the league MVP to a four-year, $285 million supermax contract extension.

ESPN’s Shams Chanaria reported that Gilgeous-Alexander had agreed to a deal that will keep him with the Thunder through the 2030-31 season.

It will see Gilgeous-Alexander earn an average annual salary of $71.25 million.

The deal will begin in the 2027-28 season after his current contract expires, with Gilgeous-Alexander set to make $364 million over the next six seasons. He will earn $38 million next campaign and $40 million in 2026-27 before his salary balloons to $63 million in 2027-28.

The extension follows a season in which Gilgeous-Alexander inspired the Thunder to their first NBA title since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle, where the team had been known as the SuperSonics and won a championship in 1979.

Gilgeous-Alexander averaged a career-high 32.7 points per game, earning him the scoring title, as the Thunder posted a 68-14 record in the regular season, the best in the NBA.

He then averaged 29.9 points per game in the postseason, in which the Thunder were taken to seven games by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals and by the Indiana Pacers in a gripping NBA Finals, in which Gilgeous-Alexander put up 30.3 points per game and was named Finals MVP.

A three-time All-Star, Gilgeous-Alexander was drafted 11th overall in 2018 by the Charlotte Hornets before immediately being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.

He was dealt again after his rookie year, sent to the Thunder as part of the blockbuster deal that sent Paul George to the Clippers.

But Canadian Gilgeous-Alexander has found a home in Oklahoma City and, still only 26, will look to justify the Thunder’s record-setting investment in his services by securing more championships for the franchise after helping end its long wait.