Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is 26 years old, in the MVP conversation (again) and playing for a tight-knit team that has a chance to win a championship. His two most talented teammates, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, are 22 and 23 years old, respectively, and there are only two players on the roster who are older than him: Alex Caruso and Kenrich Williams, both of whom are 30. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s front office, led by general manager Sam Presti, has accumulated an unprecedented combination of young talent and future draft picks. If you were wondering for some reason whether Gilgeous-Alexander is happy to be where he is, the answer is an unequivocal yes.
“I love Oklahoma City,” Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters after the Thunder’s 129-122 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, via Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman. “I can’t see a world where I’m not in OKC. Market, no market. I don’t care. I love where I am.”
He continued: “I go to work every day with a smile on my face. The money doesn’t matter, to a certain extent. As long as I enjoy what I’m doing at a very high level, love the people that I’m around doing it, market doesn’t matter to me.”
Gilgeous-Alexander started in the All-Star Game last year and is on track to do it again next month. As long as he remains healthy, he will all but certainly make the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year, too. He is eligible to sign a four-year supermax extension this coming summer, which would start at 35% of the 2027-28 salary cap and run through the 2030-31 season, at which point he would become the first NBA player to make more than $80 million in a single season. (The final year of the extension would pay him a projected $81.4 million, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks.)
In other words, Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t hurting in terms of popularity or money. More important than that, though: He has been consistent about his commitment to the Thunder for years. In September 2022, when they were coming off a 24-58 season, he told Andrew Schlecht of the “Down to Dunk” podcast, “I know what I signed up for when I signed a five-year extension, and I don’t think we’re going to be losing for much longer.” He then added, “I believe in this team.” At the time, there was some speculation that Gilgeous-Alexander might want out, but it was based purely on the market and the record, the latter of which has improved immensely in each season since.
This is not to say that Gilgeous-Alexander will definitely spend the rest of his career in Oklahoma City. The way things are going, though, why would he even think about leaving?
