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Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the 2024-25 NBA MVP on Wednesday afternoon, marking the first time he's won the prestigious award in his young career. It also meant he could secure an enormous payday in the 2026 offseason.
ESPN's Bobby Marks explained how SGA is eligible to ink a $380 million extension next year:
“Shai Gilgeous-Alexander met the super max criteria (All-NBA in 2 out of 3 years) last offseason but was ineligible to sign because he was short of the years of service criteria.He is eligible this offseason to sign a four-year $293M extension with OKC.
Because he won MVP (and this would have applied to being named All-NBA this year), SGA is now eligible to sign a five-year $380M extension but would have to wait until the 2026 offseason,” wrote Marks on X.
As he pointed out, making All-NBA would've resulted in the same situation. That's of course going to happen as well for Gilgeous-Alexander, who lit the league on fire this season. He led the Association in PPG with 32.7 per night, guiding the Thunder to the top seed in the Western Conference and the best record in the NBA.
SGA beat out Nikola Jokic for MVP, which many expected to happen. He's also got Oklahoma City up 1-0 in the West Finals after blowing out the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday evening. They took down Jokic's Denver Nuggets in the second round, too.
Gilgeous-Alexander can just ink a $293 extension across four years this summer, but why not wait and make $87 million more? It only makes sense. That deal would also be across five years, as Marks mentioned.
The guard is under contract with the Thunder through 2026-27, anyway. While loading up his pockets and setting himself up for the future is important, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is focused on one thing and one thing only right now — winning a championship. Seven more victories, and that dream will become a reality for the Canadian.
