Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the Oklahoma City Thunder surpassed Serbian Nikola Jokic from the Denver Nuggets to be chosen for the first time in his career as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the NBA regular season. Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks came in third.
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The Canadian scored 913 points, while Jokic obtained 787 points and Antetokounmpo got 470 points.
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Shams Charania, ESPN journalist, was the first to break the news.
Is SGA really the best player of the season?
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder in the regular season to the top of the Western Conference, with a record of 68 wins and 14 losses, and became the second player in NBA history to average at least 32 points and six assists per game, while shooting 50% or more from the field, just like Michael Jordan did with the Chicago Bulls during the 1988/89 and 1989/90 seasons.
Currently, “SGA” and the Thunder lead 1-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Western Conference Finals.
“SGA” is the second Canadian to receive this award, following also point guard Steve Nash in 2005 and 2006, and the third player from the Thunder to achieve it, after Kevin Durant in 2014 and Russell Westbrook in 2017.
The international players dominate the NBA
This award for Gilgeous-Alexander meant the seventh consecutive year with foreign players winning the NBA MVP. The last American-born player to win it was James Harden in 2018, when he was still playing for the Houston Rockets.
Since then, Antetokounmpo won it consecutively in 2019 and 2020, Jokic did the same in 2021 and 2022, and repeated in 2024. That was a year after Joel Embiid, born in Cameroon but later naturalized as an American, won the MVP playing for the Sixers.
The other awards for the 2024-2025 NBA season
These were the main awards of the last NBA season
- Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks), the Most Decisive (or Clutch).
- Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers), Defensive Player of the Year.
- Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs), the Rookie of the Year.
- Payton Pritchard (Boston Celtics), the Sixth Man of the Year.
- Kenny Atkinson (Cleveland Cavaliers), Coach of the Year.
- Sam Presti (Oklahoma City Thunder), Executive of the Year.