By Hawk Fanatic
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Former Iowa basketball player Payton Sandfort is signing a two-way NBA contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder, his agency tells ESPN.
Sandfort, a 6-foot-8 guard/forward from Waukee, joined the OKC program after being undrafted last June, and he has since played for its Blue G-League affiliate.
Sandfort became the econd player in program history to score 1,500-plus points, grab 500-plus rebounds and make 250-plus 3-point field goals. He also finished his career as the top free throw shooter in program history, making 89.6 percent of his attempts (266-of-297); finished 11th in career scoring (1,619) and second in career 3-pointers (271), and he scored in double digits in 74 career games with 34 20-point contests… started the final 67 games of his career.
Sandfort will join an Oklahoma City squad that currently has the best record in the NBA at 47-15, and is also the reigning NBA champion.
Two-way contracts allow NBA teams to carry three extra players in addition to the 15 on their regular-season roster. Two-way players typically go back and forth from the NBA team to its G League affiliate. They’re in eligible to play in the NBA postseason unless they’re promoted to the standard 15-man roster, which can happen until the last day of the regular-season.
Players on two-way contracts earn $636,435 for the full 2025-26 season, half of the league’s minimum salary. So with 20 regular-season games left for the Thunder, Sandfort will earn slightly less than one-fourth of that.
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