Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins MVP: Thunder star becomes eligible for 5-year, $380 million contract, largest in NBA history

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the 2024-25 NBA MVP. That’s going to make him a very rich man.

With his first MVP win, Gilgeous-Alexander is now eligible to sign the largest contract in the history of the NBA at five years, $380 million, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The one catch is he will have to wait until the 2026 offseason to sign it.

That contract, which Gilgeous-Alexander can get no matter what happens next season, would pay him $76 million annually, which would exceed even Shohei Ohtani’s average annual value (even counting the Los Angeles Dodgers star’s deferral money). Even better, because he split with his agent a few months ago, none of that money will be going to agent fees.

The Thunder have also been pretty clear they’re ready to give him that contract, despite their small market.

Gilgeous-Alexander was already on track to cash in this summer, as his two All-NBA selections made him eligible for a four-year, $293 million extension, which works out to 30% of the salary cap.

However, players become eligible for 35% of the salary cap (the supermax) if they enter their eighth or ninth season with either an MVP award in the past three seasons (check) or All-NBA selections or a Defensive Player of the Year Award in either the past season or two of the past three seasons (also check). The player also has to be playing for either the team that drafted him or one that acquired him during his rookie contract (check).

So Gilgeous-Alexander only needed to make an All-NBA team, even the third team, to be supermax-eligible next year, but he ended up winning MVP and (you would assume) a third straight All-NBA first-team selection.

Gilgeous-Alexander is already under contract for three more seasons, by virtue of his earlier five-year, $172 million extension. Between that contract, the supermax and his original $17 million rookie deal, he will have $576 million in career earnings through the first 14 years of his career.

No wonder he was feeling so generous he bought Rolex watches for the entire Thunder team.