Jalen Williams Makes Huge Personal Announcement After Great Thunder Season

Jalen Williams Makes Huge Personal Announcement After Great Thunder Season originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Jalen Williams has had an incredible few months. He has made All-NBA honors, All-Defensive honors, won an NBA championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder and, now, signed a $287 million contract extension with the franchise.

The Thunder, unsurprisingly, rewarded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Williams each with massive contract extensions after the trio led the franchise to its first title since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008.

Williams averaged 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game in his third season in the NBA. He even had an iconic 40-point performance during the NBA Finals.

There is absolutely no doubt that the Santa Clara product, whom the Thunder selected No. 12 overall in the 2022 draft, will have a lengthy, successful career to add to his already-impressive resume.

Williams makes big personal announcement

After adding plenty of hardware to his trophy shelf and landing a massive contract extension, Williams gets to do something every kid dreams of. As he revealed in an exclusive interview with TMZ, the Thunder star will be able to retire both of his parents.

"It's surreal," Williams said to TMZ. "I know everybody kind of uses that term, but it's wild because it happened really fast, like within the span of three years, my life is completely different."

"But yeah, I mean, it's cool. I've been fortunate enough to retire my parents."

Williams will be earning a hefty salary through 2031 and beyond, and every bit of it has been deserved. He's been one of the best stories since arriving in the NBA three years back and ascending to superstardom.

Now Williams, along with Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren, will keep the Thunder in title contention for years to come. The journey begins this fall, when a new season begins and the team aims to go back-to-back with a very similar roster.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.