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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander agrees to massive 4-year extension with NBA
champion Thunder, AP source says
By Associated Press
Updated:
11:43 AM EDT, Tue July 1, 2025
Source: AP
and the have agreed on a record-setting four-year, $285-million
extension that would give him the highest single-season average salary
in history, a person with knowledge of the agreement said Tuesday.
The person spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity
because the deal has not been publicly announced and likely won’t be
until the league’s moratorium on most offseason signings is lifted on
Sunday.
on the agreement.
News of the deal comes on Canada Day, a fitting coincidence for the
26-year-old from Ontario who is coming off a season like few others in
NBA history.
Not only did Gilgeous-Alexander lead the Thunder to their first NBA
championship and the league’s best record, he swept most major
individual awards – winning and NBA Finals MVP honors and the scoring
title.
The supermax extension was not unexpected. It was a question of timing;
he could have taken a deal with an even higher total value next summer.
Based on the NBA’s most recent salary cap projections – the exact
numbers will not be finalized until June 2027 – Gilgeous-Alexander
would make somewhere around $63 million in the first season and nearly
$79 million during the 2030-31 season. That would put him at an average
payout of about $1 million per regular-season game and would be the
highest single-season salary in NBA history.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t enter the league with superstar
expectations. He was the 11th overall pick in the 2018 draft, and he
was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Thunder after his
rookie year. He has been on an upward trajectory ever since, and
Thunder general manager Sam Presti believes that will continue.
“He’s gotten better every single year,” Presti said. “His
mindset has allowed him to take these steps and also not – I don’t
feel like his progress is, like, volatile. I don’t know if that makes
sense, but I don’t feel like it’s built on things that can’t be
repeated and built up again.”
Presti referred to Gilgeous-Alexander as a “basketball artist”
because he has the emotional intelligence to know when to call upon his
various gifts.
“I just think he’s got left and right brain working, and I think
when you think about people that are extremely successful in what they
do, they can’t operate all on one side or the other,” Presti said.
“People have to have – to me, the great people in life, business,
sports, any industry, have to be able to access both sides, a creative
side and then also a very objective side.”
The Thunder are set to be contenders for years. Their best player is in
place long-term, all their major players are under contract through at
least next season and Presti has a slew of draft picks stashed from
previous trades.
“We definitely still have room to grow,” Gilgeous-Alexander said
after the Game 7 win over the Indiana Pacers. “That’s the fun part
of this. So many of us can still get better. There’s not very many of
us on the team that are ‘in our prime’ or even close to it.”
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