Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander becomes 14th player to win back-to-back NBA MVPs

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — He’s the best player on the best team. And the voters say he’s the best player in the league, too.

Again.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player on Sunday for the second consecutive year. The native of Hamilton, Ont., became the 18th player to win at least two MVP awards and the 14th to win them in back-to-back fashion.

“Who he is has never changed,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I think he’s touched up the edges on his game and on his leadership and on his perspective, just like anybody else that’s coming of age.”

The win for Gilgeous-Alexander marks the eighth consecutive time that the NBA’s MVP was born outside the U.S. The run started with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a U.S. citizen) in 2023 and Jokic again in 2024.

And in 2025 and 2026, SGA is the MVP.

“Shai’s so good at creating separation when he’s able to play 1-on-1,” Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He’s just really hard to stop, for any defender.”

Jokic was second and San Antonio’s star French centre Victor Wembanyama placed third.

Gilgeous-Alexander got 83 of a possible 100 first-place votes. Jokic received 10 and Wembanyama got five. Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers was fourth in the voting and Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons was fifth.

Cunningham got two first-place votes — the first by a U.S.-born player since 2021.

Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics was sixth, and Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers and Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers tied for seventh with one fifth-place vote apiece.

International players went 1-2-3 in the voting for the fifth straight season.

Last season the order was Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. In 2024, it was Jokic, then Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic (Slovenia) of Slovenia. In 2023, it was Embiid, then Jokic, then Antetokounmpo. And in 2022, it was Jokic, then Embiid, then Antetokounmpo.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama will square off Monday night when the Thunder and Spurs open Game 1 of the Western Conference finals in Oklahoma City. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is expected at Monday’s game to formally present Gilgeous-Alexander with a trophy for the third time in 12 months — the MVP award last May, the NBA Finals MVP award last June, and now this.

The MVP win is Gilgeous-Alexander’s second major individual award this season; he was also voted the league’s Clutch Player of the Year by an overwhelming margin — he got 96 of 100 first-place votes in that balloting, paying tribute to how great his performances tend to be in the final five minutes of close games.

Then again, he’s pretty good no matter how much time is on the clock.

Gilgeous-Alexander was second in the league with 31.1 points per game, second only to Doncic and his 33.5-point average. He also extended his NBA-record streak of regular season games with at least 20 points to 140 and counting; it’ll carry into next season as well.

He’s delightfully boring — one of the few mid-range specialists in the game, someone who excels at drawing fouls, isn’t a look-at-me type and gives some of the most thoughtful answers of anyone in the league. Emotions aren’t worth his time; staying calm is always his preferred move.

“It just gives me the best chance to make the right decision on the next play, which is what’s most important,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’ve noticed throughout my career and through personal experiences that emotions only get in the way of critical and smart thinking — especially in those moments when I want to get the job done the most. I try to put my emotions aside and stay locked in on what’s present and what matters most.”

Jokic not winning the award continues an odd trend: those who average a triple-double, often thought of as the holy grail of in-game accomplishment, hardly ever win MVP.

Jokic had the seventh instance of a player finishing a season averaging a triple-double — at least 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds per game — by putting up 27.7 points, a league-best 12.9 rebounds and a league-best 10.7 assists per game.

It wasn’t good enough for MVP. Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double four times and won MVP only once in those years. Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double in 1961-62; he didn’t win MVP that season. And now, Jokic has done it twice — with no MVPs to show for it, though he has won the award on three other occasions.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry was the last player born in the U.S. to be in the top three of the MVP balloting; he was third in 2021 behind Jokic and Embiid. The last U.S. winner of the award was James Harden, then of Houston, in 2018. Harden has played for four different franchises since then.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press