Before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder star made Manhattan’s financial district his runway, sporting Chanel sunglasses, a massive diamond chain and denim outfit as photographer Richard Ontiveros-Gima snapped pictures.
The fruits of the fashion shoot soon appeared on Ontiveros-Gima’s Instagram feed, where the streetwear artist has cultivated almost 100,000 followers, and on Getty Images through a global licensing distribution agreement.
Then, Gilgeous-Alexander crossed the East River and dropped 27 points at Barclays Center in another winning performance for the Western Conference-leading Thunder.
The MVP favorite can sign a four-year supermax extension worth nearly $300 million this summer, letting him cash in after helping reestablish OKC among the league’s elite. And, true to Gilgeous-Alexander’s track record, the extension will be a little different than most NBA deals.
The 26-year-old will sign the pact without representation after firing his agent, Thad Foucher of Wasserman, last week.
Few basketball stars have gone this route before—and none with as much money on the table. The decision means Gilgeous-Alexander will avoid paying up to 4% in agent commission fees. He’ll likely save about $11 million by cutting out the middleman.
“I’m confident in my ability to do it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said to Sportico at a press conference. “It wasn’t entirely [about agent fees]. I want to be a well-rounded human being—not just a basketball player but a businessman, father and husband. I want to check all the boxes.”
Going Alone
Unique Sports Management CEO Torrel Harris, the father of Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris, believes Gilgeous-Alexander’s choice carries added weight given his on-court status—a two-time All-NBA selection and leader of a title contender.
While the terms of Gilgeous-Alexander’s summer supermax should be straightforward because the collective bargaining agreement has predetermined contract terms for such deals, the 6-foot-6 guard could run into challenges down the line, such as front office politics or roster construction concerns.
“He can do it,” Harris said in a phone interview. “But he needs make sure he has people around him [who] have expertise, because he has the opportunity to be the face of the NBA.”
SGA’s path is not entirely without precedent. Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown entered the league without an agent before hiring Jason Glushon. Portland Trail Blazers high-flyer Shaedon Sharpe also came into the NBA without a rep before appointing Mike George. Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid negotiated his $192 million contract extension last year after stepping away from CAA for on-court representation.
Off the court, Gilgeous-Alexander will still be represented for marketing deals and other endeavors by Simon Gebrelul of Isla Management. Gebrelul, a Toronto native, previously repped fellow Canadian Tristan Thompson, a center for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The on-court agent change mirrors Gilgeous-Alexander’s desire to pick up skills that will be applicable beyond his playing career, such as the business side of social media and fashion.
“I think it’ll be a good experience for me to learn and get better in other areas of life,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I just see it as an opportunity to better myself.”
Influence Beyond Basketball
Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t just let his play do the talking. He’s built a following of 4 million on his Instagram account, which features lyrical captions below slides with game highlights, fashion-related images and memes.
Following a 33-point outburst against the Eastern Conference heavyweight Boston Celtics and a 39-point effort against the New York Knicks in January, he wrote, “scratching things off my bucket list / I can’t go back and forth with somebody who is bucket-less.”
The 15-slide post notably featured highlights of Gilgeous-Alexander swatting a shot from Celtics leading scorer Jayson Tatum and making Knicks defensive stalwart Josh Hart fall with a spin move. But it also included images of the 2018 first-round pick doing pregame fashion walks.
“Description: ain’t no talking to no one who don’t get buckets,” replied teammate Jalen Williams, who often enters his comment section as a translator for the masses.
His writing style has evolved over time, but Dec. 22, 2022, is when Gilgeous-Alexander seemed to fully embrace Instagram as a medium to play around with words. After a win over the Trail Blazers and then-Portland star Damian Lillard, one of the Western Conference guards he wanted to surpass on the court, he wrote, “They ask what I been up to / Just staring eye to eye with the people I used to look up to.”
Gilgeous-Alexander has continued the tradition throughout the past three seasons while solidifying his status as an NBA MVP candidate. He finished second in last season’s voting, 64 votes behind winner Nikola Jokić. He is the favorite in 2024-25.
After a trip to his home country to face the Toronto Raptors, he wrote, “back in the city where I started at / I was in the nose bleeds with the Vince jersey and the Starter cap / Now I look into the the stands and see my name / Who would’ve thought of that.” It received 463,000 likes and was shared 29,000 times.
The University of Kentucky product previously said he takes about 15 minutes to “think and brainstorm” before writing his viral captions, and he works alone.
Recently, his feed has been interspersed with sponsored brand obligations. Skims, Canada Goose and Converse are among the companies that have paid handsomely for the right to a spot in his feed; he is now the 42nd highest-paid athlete in the world with about $18 million in annual endorsement money.
It is no coincidence that Gilgeous-Alexander attracts fashion producers. The industry is his second love outside of basketball, leading him on offseason trips to France and Spain, where he has talked business with soccer players such as Real Madrid stars Vinicius Junior and Éder Militão. Gilgeous-Alexander counts Vinicius Junior, who publicly sparred with Nike before signing a contract extension in 2023 and is similarly passionate about fashion, as a close friend.
On the U.S. fashion circuit, Gilgeous-Alexander has appeared on the cover of fashion magazines such as GQ and Dazed, and he attended the Met Gala in 2021, 2022 and 2023. He only missed it last year because the Thunder had a second-round playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks the next day.
SGA’s shoe deal has a typically unique spin. He signed a multiyear extension with Nike-owned Converse in 2024 that made him the brand’s creative director of basketball. The deal, worth an estimated $15 million a year on average, has driven his off-court earnings. The choice of Converse over Jordan Brand is another example of him choosing a road less traveled.
With Converse, Gilgeous-Alexander created his own logo and drew the initial designs for what became the Shai 001, his first signature shoe. It was unveiled in February and will release to the public this fall, right on the heels of his supermax contract.
Gilgeous-Alexander alluded to the kicks and their golden colorway—and his rising net worth—in his latest Instagram post. “I’m all about my bread & butters,” he wrote.