With the OKC Thunder now officially crowned as NBA Champions, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has become just the fourth player in history to win the league's scoring title, MVP, and Finals MVP all in the same season.
The other three to have accomplished such a feat are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lou Alcindor), Shaquille O'Neal, and Michael Jordan.
Throughout his monstrous 2024-25 campaign, SGA has found himself joining a number of historically elite fraternities as a result of his on-court production.
From becoming just the fourth player to average 32+ points, 5+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and win MVP all in the same season, to literally resetting the mark for the time it takes to register one's first four 50+ point games, the 26-year-old was regularly etching his name into the history books all throughout the year.
Now, though the season may have come to a close, this doesn't mean that his historic run is going to end any time soon.
In fact, in just a few weeks, Gilgeous-Alexander will be able to enter into an eye-popping club where, if accepted, he'll be the lone member.
Thunder star could become first player to earn $80M in a season
With his resume including three All-NBA selections over the past three consecutive years and seven total years of service in the association, this summer, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be eligible to sign a lucrative contract extension with the Thunder, worth a total of $293.4 million over a four-year span.
Considering the breakdowns of his salary currently project as $66 million in year one, $71 million in year two, $76 million in year three, and, ultimately, $81 million in year four, if he were to put pen to paper on such a pact, he would become the first NBA player ever to see a payday of $80 million or more in a single season.
What's even crazier is that, with his MVP win this season, the Thunder superstar is also now eligible to sign a ridiculous $380 million extension over a five-year span if he waits till next summer to ink a new deal, though, according to ESPN's cap expert Bobby Marks, him turning down this offseason's deal seems rather unrealistic.
With this lucrative contract eligibility coming at the same time as when both Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren will be up for extensions themselves, expectations are that OKC's seventh-lowest payroll from this past campaign is only bound to skyrocket over the coming years.
Of course, with title one already wrapped up and the opportunity to become a true dynasty up for the taking, shelling out such high-end coin could prove to be well worth it in the end.