Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the 2024/25 season, the league announced on Wednesday (Twitter link). Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link) first reported the news.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic were the frontrunners for the award virtually all season, with Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo as the other finalist. While Jokic has three MVP awards and Antetokounmpo has won twice, this is a first for SGA, who was the runner-up to Jokic last year.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA in scoring at 32.7 points per game as part of an overall excellent year. In 76 contests, he also averaged 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.0 block while shooting 51.9% from the field. Tim MacMahon of ESPN notes that the only other player to post similar numbers in a season was Michael Jordan, who did it while capturing MVP honors in 1987/88 and 1990/91.
On top of his individual brilliance, Gilgeous-Alexander likely won over some voters by leading Oklahoma City to the best record in the league at 68-14. MacMahon states that it’s the 10th time that a player has led the league in scoring for a team with at least 60 wins.
Gilgeous-Alexander won the award by a comfortable margin by earning 71 of 100 possible first-place votes and placing second on the other 29 ballots. However, Jokic made it a competitive race by claiming the remaining 29 first-place votes and earning the No. 2 spot from the other 71 voters. The Nuggets star turned in one of the most prolific seasons of his career, averaging a triple-double with 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists in 70 games.
Jokic helped the Nuggets secure the fourth seed in the West, but they won 18 fewer games than the Thunder and were eliminated by OKC in a seven-game second-round series.
Antetokounmpo was outstanding again for a 48-win Bucks team, posting 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists in 67 games, but he was considered a long shot to win the award. He claimed 88 third-place votes and showed up on all 100 ballots.
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell rounded out the top five, with Tatum earning 84 fourth-place votes and Mitchell coming in fifth on 60 ballots. Seven other players earned at least one fourth- or fifth-place vote: LeBron James, Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, Jalen Brunson, James Harden, and Evan Mobley. The full voting results can be found here.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the third player in Thunder history to capture MVP honors, joining Kevin Durant in 2014 and Russell Westbrook in 2017.
As MacMahon notes, Gilgeous-Alexander has been an All-NBA selection the past two seasons, so he already met the qualifications for a historic four-year, $294MM extension this summer. The $73.3MM annual value would be the largest in NBA history.
The MVP award will make him eligible for a five-year, $380MM extension if he waits until 2026, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).