The international flavor of the MVP award continues. The world has caught up. Oklahoma City Thunder superstar guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won his first career NBA MVP award for the 2024-25 season.
Gilgeous-Alexander was the front runner to capture the award for the lions’ share of the season and now takes home one of the prestigious and coveted honors in the sport.
The 2024-25 season was one for the ages as well as the record books for the 26-year-old superstar from Canada. In it, he led was the driving force that led his team to an NBA-best 68-14 record, led the NBA in scoring (32.7 points per game), scored 20+ points in an unbelievable 72 consecutive games, led the NBA in 20-point games (75), led the NBA in 30-point games (49), led the NBA in 40-point games (13), and led the NBA in 50-point games (4).
During the 82-game marathon of a season, Gilgeous-Alexander put up remarkable numbers, averaging 32.7 points on an efficient 51.9 percent shooting from the field. He also got his supporting cast involved, dishing out 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game. Michael Jordan, when he was a member of the Chicago Bulls, is the only other player in NBA history to reach those marks, at least 30 points on 50 percent shooting, along with five rebounds, five assists, 1.5 steals, and one block per game.
Gilgeous-Alexander won the award with one of the best guard seasons in NBA history. As stated previously, he led the NBA with 32.7 points per game. The only other guards this century to score that much were James Harden, Kobe Bryant, Luka Doncic and Allen Iverson.
As for the runner-up, Nuggets, three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, made a strong case for himself. Jokic averaged 29.6 points per game in the season, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 1.8 steals. He became the third player to record a triple-double in a season. The other two are his teammate Russell Westbrook, who won the 2017 MVP award with his triple-double season, and Oscar Robertson, who did so during the 1961-62 NBA season.
Robertson lost the MVP to Boston Celtics legend and Hall of Famer, the great Bill Russell.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the third player in franchise history to win an MVP, joining Kevin Durant (2014) and Westbrook (2017). He is also the first Kentucky Wildcats basketball product to win MVP, which is a blueblood school in hoops.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter being named a first-team All-NBA selection for the past two seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander had already qualified to be eligible to sign an unprecedented, four-year, $294 million supermax extension this summer. It would be the deal with the highest annual value ($73.3 million) in league history.
Gilgeous-Alexander is coming off a strong Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves that saw him record 31 points on 10 of 27 shooting, five rebounds, nine assists, and three steals in 38 minutes of playing time.
Adding to Gilgeous-Alexander’s resume, the Canadian superstar also became the seventh consecutive international player to win the MVP award, joining Jokić (2024, 2022, 2021), Joel Embiid (2023) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (2020, 2019). In his young career, Gilgeous-Alexander is a three-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA First Team, and the scoring champion this season.
In the end, the voters decided that Gilgeous-Alexander deserved and earned the nod. In a season in which there were two worthy MVP winners, the voters leaned on the one leading one of the greatest regular-season teams in NBA history. With a regular-season MVP award now under his belt, Gilgeous-Alexander will try to add the far more meaningful Bill Russell Finals MVP award late next month. The Thunder still have plenty of work ahead of them before that dream can become a reality but considering the season that Gilgeous-Alexander is having, he has a real chance to become the first player since 2013 LeBron James to capture both in a single season.
Prior to the past seven seasons, only three international players had won the award (Steve Nash twice, plus Hakeem Olajuwon and Dirk Nowitzki).
The Thunder are playing in their first conference finals this decade since 2016 and, according to FanDuel Sportsbooks, have the best odds to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy, with -250 odds.
The league will formally announce the honor Wednesday night, a few nights after Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder defeated Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday.
