Ex-Knicks 7-Footer to Sign $75 Million Contract With OKC Thunder: Report
· Yahoo Sports
Isaiah Hartenstein is staying in Oklahoma City â and doing so for a lot of money. The Oklahoma City Thunder center plans to sign a new three-year contract, committing him to the franchise through the 2028-29 NBA season, according to ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania.
The deal valued at $75 million according to Charania’s report for ESPN, pushes Hartenstein’s total guaranteed earnings with Oklahoma City to five years and $134 million, a significant financial commitment for a franchise navigating luxury tax pressure heading into the offseason and a future that gets more expensive by the year.
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Hartenstein’s New Oklahoma City Thunder Contract
The 7-foot, 250-pound Hartenstein arrived in Oklahoma City in July 2024 on a three-year, $87 million deal after two productive seasons with the New York Knicks, according to ESPN. That original contract included a $28.5 million team option for 2026-27, a decision general manager Sam Presti had to weigh carefully given the franchise’s growing payroll obligations.
The Thunder had at least four possible paths with Hartenstein’s deal heading into the offseason, according to Yahoo Sports‘ Braxton Reynolds â exercising the option, declining it and letting him reach unrestricted free agency, restructuring with a new long-term commitment, or exercising the option and tacking on an extension afterward. The new three-year pact resolves all of that uncertainty in one move, keeping Hartenstein off the open market entirely.
Charania described Hartenstein as “a key signing in 2024 leading to the 2025 championship” and called him the team’s “defensive anchor.”
The deal also raises pointed questions about how Oklahoma City manages the tax going forward. Centers comparable to Hartenstein â Rudy Gobert, Alperen Sengun, and Jarrett Allen â are commanding between 17% and 22% of the salary cap in current deals, according to Yahoo Sports. Presti will now need to balance Hartenstein’s new salary against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s incoming supermax extension, a financial tightrope the franchise has been walking carefully for two seasons.
GettyIsaiah Hartenstein played two seasons for the New York Knicks but won a championship with the OKC Thunder.
Hartenstein’s Impact on the Thunder Title Run
Hartenstein’s basketball case for the extension is not difficult to make. He turned in the best seasons of his career after joining Oklahoma City. In 2024-25, the Thunder’s championship year, he averaged 11.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3.8 assists across 57 games while shooting better than 60% from the field. He contributed 7 points and 9 rebounds in the Game 7 clincher over the Indiana Pacers.
He maintained that level in 2025-26, posting 9.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game on 62.2% shooting in 47 starts. His defining individual performance came Nov. 7, 2025, against the Sacramento Kings: 33 points, 19 rebounds, and 3 blocks on 14-of-17 shooting. That was the first 30-point, 15-rebound, 75%-shooting game in OKC franchise history.
“His passing ability, his rebounding, his playmaking, his communication, his camaraderie, his leadership⦠Isaiah is, at the end of the day, a really good basketball player,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, as quoted by Sports Illustrated. “It’s no coincidence we made the jump from last year adding (Hartenstein).”
Hartenstein, born May 5, 1998, in Eugene, Oregon, to a father who played and coached professional basketball, spent years bouncing around the NBA with the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Cavaliers, the Los Angeles Clippers, before landing in New York and eventually Oklahoma City. He won an NBA G League championship and Finals MVP with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2019. His route to $134 million guaranteed was not inevitable.
With this contract, Oklahoma City locks in the defensive interior that powered its championship and commits to running it back for three more years.
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