NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has agreed to a four-year, $285 million tremendous most contract extension with the champion Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder by the 2030-31 season, sources advised ESPN on Tuesday.
That is now the richest annual wage for a participant in league historical past.
He has now signed two contract extensions as a member of the Thunder, cementing either side’ partnership and belief since he arrived in Oklahoma Metropolis in 2019.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged a league-high 32.7 factors throughout the common season and 30.3 within the NBA Finals, joined an unique record of gamers to win the MVP and Finals MVP in the identical season. The one others to perform that feat are Michael Jordan (4 occasions), LeBron James (twice), Larry Chicken (twice), Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Magic Johnson, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Willis Reed.
Gilgeous-Alexander additionally turned the primary participant to win a scoring title and NBA championship in the identical season since O’Neal in 2000. The one others to have achieved which might be Jordan (six occasions), Abdul-Jabbar, George Mikan (twice) and Joe Fulks.
The one gamers apart from Gilgeous-Alexander to perform the triple crown of scoring champion, MVP and NBA champion in the identical season are Jordan (4 occasions), O’Neal and Abdul-Jabbar.
Gilgeous-Alexander was acquired after his rookie season because the centerpiece within the bundle the Thunder obtained within the Paul George commerce with the LA Clippers in the summertime of 2019, together with a historic haul of first-round picks, one in all which turned Oklahoma Metropolis co-star Jalen Williams.
He served because the regular face of Oklahoma Metropolis’s franchise because the Thunder stripped down the roster round him and went by a fast rebuild. Gilgeous-Alexander’s dedication and religion within the franchise by no means wavered because the Thunder endured 22- and 24-win seasons earlier than making double-digit win leaps in every of the previous three years, culminating with this 68-win marketing campaign and march to the title.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s regular-season scoring common on this championship season was the very best ever by a participant who received the title that marketing campaign, topping Jordan in 1992-93 by one-tenth of some extent, based on ESPN Analysis. His 3,172 factors, together with common season and playoffs, had been additionally essentially the most since Jordan that very same season.
He scored 20 or extra level in 72 straight video games this season — the fourth-longest streak inside a season in NBA historical past — and his +918 plus-minus was the most effective in an NBA season because the Warriors’ Stephen Curry in 2016-17.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and ESPN Analysis contributed to this report.