Chet Holmgren has agreed on a five-year contract extension worth nearly $240 million to remain with the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, a person with knowledge of the deal said Wednesday.
The person spoke to media on condition of anonymity because the signing has not yet been announced. ESPN, which first reported the deal, citing agent Bill Duffy, said it could eventually be worth $250 million because of various contract escalators.
It is the second major extension for the Thunder since winning the NBA title last month. The other went to NBA MVP, NBA Finals MVP and reigning scoring champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who got a four-year, $285 million extension.
And soon, the Thunder could extend Jalen Williams — another huge part of the title team — and lock up the entirety of their young core for years.
Holmgren will make $13.7 million this coming season, the final year of his rookie deal, before his salary jumps to about $41 million for 2026-27 and the start of the extension.
He was the No. 2 pick behind Orlando’s Paolo Banchero in the 2022 NBA draft, then missed the entirety of what would have been his first pro season with a foot injury. He played all 82 games in 2023-24 to help the Thunder make the second round of the playoffs, then was limited to 32 games this past season after suffering a hip injury.
Holmgren was there for the entirety of the Thunder playoff run, averaging 15.2 points and 8.7 rebounds in 23 postseason games — capped by Oklahoma City holding off Indiana and winning the NBA Finals in a seven-game thriller.
The way Holmgren came back from the injury is one of the stories that seemed to stick with Thunder general manager Sam Presti the most during the title run.
“They went through a fair amount of adversity during the season,” Presti said last month in his end-of-season meeting with reporters. “In reality, a lot of that adversity forged us into the team that we were, playing different lineups and being without certain players and then getting those players back, and the selflessness and humility that the players coming back had to have in order to fit into a team that was really cooking without them. Chet is one example of that, but we had many others.”
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