After a historic season where he became the 10th player ever to lead the league in scoring while winning more than 60 games, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be named NBA MVP, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. With this achievement, he can soon sign a contract that will pay him nearly $80 million per season.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points per game while leading the Thunder to 68 regular season wins. They currently lead the Minnesota Timberwolves one game to none in the Western Conference Finals.
SGA added five rebounds and 6.4 assists per game, along with a 51.9 shooting percentage, connecting on 37.5% of his shots from three, and recording a league-leading 16.7 win shares.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished second in MVP voting last year to Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, who placed as runner-up this time around.
With SGA securing his first MVP award, he now qualifies for a massive pay raise.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, SGA was already eligible to sign a four-year $293 million supermax extension this offseason — a $73.25 million annual average value. However, if he waits until next year, he can earn $76 million annually.
“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,” Marks reports.
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.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) May 21, 2025
He is eligible this offseason to sign a four-year $293M extension with OKC.
Because he won MVP (and…
Regardless of which extension he signs, Gilgeous-Alexander’s deal will represent the highest annual value in league history. The highest average annual value currently belongs to Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum at $62.78 million.
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