Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can make history by signing an extension with the Thunder

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on the verge of making history this offseason. The Oklahoma City Thunder The superstar has been so impressive that he doesn’t even need to win the league MVP or the NBA title this season to do it. Last season’s All-NBA team announcement made Gilgeous-Alexander (along with Luka Doncic) the first player eligible for a supermax extension.

Thanks The NBA’s record-setting 11-year TV rights deadline worth $76 billion, Doncic can sign a five-year, $346 million supermax this offseason, earn the maximum $78 million in 2030-31.

For Gornja Star, Gilgeous-Alexander, because his SuperMax extension would start a year later than Doncic, will get a contract that pays $81.5 million five years down the road. Signing an extension would make him The first athlete in the USA in sports history to secure a large payout from the team.

Why couldn’t Ghon’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander be signed to an extension last season?

Under the NBA’s revised CBA, players will only be eligible for a Supermax contract if they complete a two-step eligibility process.

First step:

• A player must be named to an All-NBA team in the most recent season, or two in the last three years.
• Win a DPOI in the most recent season or two in the last three years
• WIN MVP in any of the three previous seasons

Two steps:

• Have at least seven years of NBA experience.
• Be on the same team that drafted them or acquired their rookie contract via trade.

From the above criteria, the only reason Gilgeous-Aleksandar and Doncic were not eligible to sign an extension last year was because there were not seven years of NBA experience. That finally changes this outerwear.

How NBA players are taking advantage of the league’s growing wealth

The league’s salary projections are projected to increase at least 10 percent annually. As part of the SuperMax extension, the player would command 35 percent of the projected salary cap entering each season.

ESPN’s Bobby Marks details GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER Potential annual earnings From the contract itself only if he signs the extension:

• 2027-28: 65,684,850
• 2028-29: $70,939,638
• 2029-30: $76,194,426
• 2030-31: $81,449,249

Total: $294,268,128

If Gilgeous-Alexander decides to wait, he will become an unrestricted free agent in 2027. GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER is currently in the middle of the five-year, $179 million extension he signed in 2021. This era of NBA contracts gets So, out of hand, that Gilgeous-Alexander salary is 2030-31, just $13 million from what Michael Jordan made over his entire career.

For those who think GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER will bypass signing the extension To play for the bigger market, here’s what he had to say:

“I can only speak for myself. I love Oklahoma City, and I can’t see a world where I’m not in Oklahoma City,” he said. “I’m comfortable where I am. I like where I am; I like the people in the organization, I like the people around me, and those are the things that matter. I go to work every day with a smile on my face. Me personally, the market doesn’t matter.”

Fidelity definitely has its perks. For GILGEUS-ALEXANDER, his commitment to the OKC Thunder will be rewarded with the honor of becoming the first athlete in American sports history to earn $80 million in a single year.

With the NBA’s evolving financial landscape and new CBA rules, it will only be a matter of time until one player can make $100 million in one season.