OKLAHOMA CITY – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, after leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to the top of the league with 68 victories and conquering his first scoring title, has been awarded the NBA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.
The official announcement took place on Wednesday night, a few days after Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder defeated Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets in the seventh game of the Western Conference semifinals.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished as runner-up in the previous year’s MVP voting, where Jokic won his third award in four seasons, had a historic campaign.
Despite Jokic’s impressive season, averaging 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists, and 1.8 steals per game, Gilgeous-Alexander shone with an exceptional performance for an Oklahoma City team that broke the NBA record for point differential (plus 12.9 per game) and surpassed the Nuggets by 18 wins.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the league with 32.7 points per game, shooting 51.9% from the field, in addition to averaging 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks. Only one other player in NBA history has managed to average at least 30 points with 50% field goal shooting, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1 block per game in a season: Michael Jordan, who did it in 1987-88 and 1990-91, seasons in which he won his first two MVP awards.
At 26 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander joins a select club by leading the league in scoring for a team that won 60 or more games, an achievement that has only been accomplished 10 times in NBA history. The only time the scoring leader didn’t win the MVP was in 1996-97, when Utah’s Karl Malone beat out Jordan.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the league this season with 32.7 points per game, shooting 51.9% from the field, in addition to averaging 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks.
This is the third consecutive season in which Gilgeous-Alexander averages at least 30 points with a field goal percentage above 50%. The only other players who have achieved this feat for three consecutive seasons (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jordan) have won multiple MVP awards.
Gilgeous-Alexander was also a key contributor to Oklahoma City’s top-tier defense. He had 208 “stocks” (steals and blocks) this season, ranking third behind San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama and Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels.
Gilgeous-Alexander becomes the third player in franchise history to win an MVP, joining Kevin Durant (2014) and Russell Westbrook (2017).
After being selected to the All-NBA First Team in the last two seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander already meets the requirements to sign an unprecedented supermax extension for four years and $294 million this summer. It would be the contract with the highest annual value ($73.3 million) in league history.
