Shai Gilgeous-Alexander May Be NBA’s First $100M Player
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just picked up his first MVP award, and now he’s in line for a huge payday. NBA salary cap experts say he’s eligible to sign a four-year, $293 million supermax deal that would pay him over $80 million in the 2030–31 season—making him the first player in league history to cross that number.
If Gilgeous-Alexander waits until the summer of 2026 and adds one more year of service, he could sign a five-year deal worth $380 million. That contract would pay him about $88 million in its final year, putting him on track to be the first player to earn more than $1 million per regular-season game.
That raises a big question—how soon will the NBA see its first player make over $100 million in a single season?
ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks crunched the numbers and said it could happen if the league’s salary cap keeps rising at around 10% each year. However, Marks added that this steady growth isn’t guaranteed.
“We’re still a little bit way off from that, but it’s getting there,” Marks said.
