Oklahoma City Thunder star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won his second consecutive NBA MVP award.
The announcement, which took place just before Sunday’s Game 7 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons, confirms reporting from ESPN’s Shams Charania, who leaked the selection Sunday morning. The honor comes one day before the defending champions begin their Western Conference finals series with the San Antonio Spurs.
Led by their star point guard, the Thunder finished with a 64-18 record, earning the NBA’s best mark for the second straight season. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.1 points, second in the league behind the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Dončić (33.5). He also led the Thunder with 6.6 assists, along with 4.3 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 39% on 3-pointers.
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Gilgeous-Alexander, 27, is the 14th player in league history to win MVP in back-to-back seasons. It’s the eighth straight year that an international player has won the award, with the Canadian guard receiving 83 of 100 first-place votes.
Following Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić — already a three-time MVP winner — finished ahead of San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, earning 10 first-place votes to Wembanyama’s five.
In an interview on Prime after the official announcement, Gilgeous-Alexander cited “hard work” in earning the award, and shouted out his teammates for their support on the court. He also spoke about working to improve his game early in his career, and how that led him to where he is today.
“I saw a growth really fast in those summers and the summers leading up to when I got drafted and I was like, ‘If I can duplicate that every summer and get better at that rate then I’ll eventually get to where I wanna go, and it’s worked out for me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
The last player to win consecutive MVPs was Jokić, who earned the award for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns. Prior to Jokić, the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo won the honor for the previous two seasons.
Since 2000, the list of back-to-back MVP winners includes Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, LeBron James (who did it twice) and Stephen Curry.
With the NBA Draft coming up in a month, it’s worth noting that Gilgeous-Alexander was the No. 11 overall selection out of Kentucky in 2018 by the Charlotte Hornets. His rights were traded to the Los Angeles Clippers on draft night for Miles Bridges and two second-round picks.
One year later, SGA was dealt to the Thunder with five first-round selections, two first-round pick swaps and Danilo Galinari in exchange for Paul George and a first-rounder.
Thunder needed SGA’s scoring more this season
Gilgeous-Alexander arguably had to shoulder a greater offensive burden this season with Jalen Williams limited to 33 games due to lingering hamstring injuries. Ajay Mitchell, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein also missed 25 or more games this season.
That surely contributed to Gilgeous-Alexander setting an NBA record with 127 consecutive games of scoring 20 or more points, dating back to 2024. That broke a mark set by Wilt Chamberlain from 1961-63.
He scored 40 or more points in seven games this season, highlighted by a career-high 55 in a 141-135, double-overtime win against the Indiana Pacers in Oklahoma City’s second game of the season.
Thunder star’s trophy case gets more crowded
Gilgeous-Alexander now adds a second MVP award to an impressive and growing list of prizes. Earlier during the postseason, Gilgeous-Alexander was named the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, an award launched for the 2022-23 season. He decisively beat out the Nuggets’ Jamal Murray and Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards for the honor.
The Thunder guard earned the award based on scoring 175 points in “clutch” situations, meaning the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime in games with a five-point margin.
In eight NBA seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander has now earned two MVP awards, the aforementioned Clutch Player of the Year and last season’s NBA Finals MVP. He also led the league in scoring last season (averaging 32.7 points per game), been named to four All-Star teams and earned All-NBA first-team honors three times.
SGA tops Jokić again for MVP
The NBA MVP is a regular-season award, but Gilgeous-Alexander is continuing his output during the postseason. He’s scoring 29.1 points per game, a close second to the Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham (29.3). Oklahoma City has yet to lose a game in the 2025-26 playoffs, sweeping their first two series versus the Phoenix Suns and Lakers.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić were two of the finalists for MVP this season, in addition to Spurs center Victor Wembanyama.
Jokić, 31, averaged 27.7 points while leading the NBA with 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game. He became the first player to lead the league in those latter categories during a single season.
Wembanyama, 22, scored 25 points per game, also averaging 11.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He led the NBA with an average of 3.1 blocks per contest. That earned him Defensive Player of the Year honors in a unanimous vote.
Gilgeous-Alexander has now beaten out the Nuggets’ center for the second straight year. At his age and with the Thunder’s continued success, eventually matching Jokić with a third MVP award seems entirely possible. Though Jokić and Wembanyama will both present significant obstacles in the seasons to come.
