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).
Well deserved. Not a fan of the Harden like foul baiting but can’t argue with the effectiveness and productivity.
It is well deserved but he doesn’t foul bait like Harden. Shai drives to the duo and creates contact while trying to get a bucket while Harden flailed his arms and stepped into jumping defenders while travelling into his step back jumper.
Bro if you watch last nights game an come away with the conclusion that he isn’t foul baiting or that the refs don’t have a different whistle for him then other players get in the playoffs I’m not sure we’re watching the same sport.
Every star in the game gets the calls and SGA does look for contact as every player should. The difference is he’s actually trying to get a bucket though while looking to draw contact. If you get into the teeth of a defense 20-25 times a game you’re going draw a lot contact, he just makes sure the red sees it.
The best part about these NBA playoffs has been how physical they have been the viewership is way up and the level attention is the highest in years. SGA is an amazingly talented, excellent player and he is also absolutely foul baiting and it is clear to anyone that watches without a bias of OKC winning. In fact he missed 2-3 layups to start the game last night because he wasn’t trying to make the shot he was trying to get fouled. I watched Alex Caruso and Lou Dort basically mug Joker the first 3 quarters of game 7 which personally I love, I think the NBA is at its absolute best when the refs are involved as little as possible. But it’s also extremely frustrating as a viewer when it’s obvious that when OKC is on defense they are allowed to be incredibly physical but when they’re on offense and SGA has the ball he gets to play in a protective bubble.
SGA runs into the defender while driving and stops using his legs so he flails to the ground. He definitely foul baits but that’s the nba.
lol you fn joking right?
He’d get my vote. I think it’s the expected and correct call, even if Joker supporters will go ballistic
Traded by the Hornets to the Clippers for Miles Bridges and two 2nd round picks. Then Traded by the Clippers for PG.
and now MVP, maybe nba champ
Just curious as to why it always takes so long to name said player every year? Could it not be voted on right after the season is complete?
It is voted on at the end of the season. The league likes to build up the suspense and slowly announce the various award winners.
Basketball is a 2 way sport, Jokic is an all time guy, but defensively he’s awful. Shai deserved it. He played defense as well. Congrats to having the first of possibly many MVP’s.
Wemby has next.
I agree that SGA deserves MVP. He is a better individual defender and he’s good at disrupting plays. Jokìc may not be good at 1 on 1 or drop coverage but he’s a student of the game and watches a ton of film he’s very good at reading what the opposing offense is doing. Watch him, he almost always hedges the pick and roll but he’ll hedge it to different levels so you can’t figure out where he’s going to be and he points out the spots on the floor where everyone else needs to be.
Nice job not letting this get spoiled, NBA. Either way, happy for Shai. I’m glad he got it.
I disagree. Shams broke it early for some reason.
This was a really close race. Couldn’t go wrong with either player but I did think Shai should get it just for the team success. That’s like the 80th tiebreaker
Proved in gm1 ——- Congratulations SGA 🙏
Its a feelings award now, nothing against Joel or SGA but them taking Jokers award wasn’t in the spirit of what the award was suppose to be about
So it goes , Congrats SGA
** Some company (Chunky soup/Gatorade )? should just come out with a separate marketing award of best NBA player of that year and start playing commercials for the finals if we keep going down this road _ Savage market strategy
Brunson still gets no respect at all.
> Its a feelings award now… taking away Jokers award wasn’t in the spirit
> of what the award was suppose to be about.
From its origination in the 1950’s, the NBA MVP has *always* been a “feelings award” even though it was originally described as being for “best performing player”.
The problem is that “best performing”, like “most valuable”, is inherently multi-faceted and ambiguous, so any voter’s ranking will be subjective.
Listen to the arguments on this thread. The smartest and most informed fans disagree on criteria — scoring, availability, versatility, “clutch” play, “leadership”, team success, etc.
Every year, in every major sport, this debate rages, and no progress is made. The leagues want to keep it that way.
SGA was great this season… but, everybody knows that Jokic was light years ahead of him!
The most unfair result in many years!
As a matter of fact Giannis was better than SGA as well!
Hurt dogs will cry…
I’m unofficially creating the PUPOY Award, Pickup Player of the Year. Who is first pick if you want to win one game? Like pickup basketball, the best player who leads to victory if we played right now? I would pick Jokic, hands down.
Your pick?
OKC was 5-1 without Shai, he certainly was not the “most valuable” to his team, his team cooked without him. Was he the best overall player in the league? Yeah, probably. But “most valuable” and “best” aren’t the same things. Remove Joker from Denver, Denver is barely a play-in team. OKC is still top 4 without SGA. OKC has the deepest roster in decades. Denver had Westbrook.
Joker would destroy Shai 1 on 1. Feels weird man.
Even with the stat padding triple double, it’s hard for me to go with Jokic when he can get dominated by other Centers.
Well deserved
The Clippers made one of the worst trade ever, SGA and a bunch of picks for the super super overrated Paul George, even worst he walked away and signed with Philadelphia.I feel very sorry for the Clippers fans and even worst for the Philadelphia fans that finish with Paul George.
OKC traded PG for Shai. Indiana traded PG for Sabonis and then Sabonis was the centerpiece for Haliburton. If we get an OKC/Indiana final, then each finalist will have acquired their biggest star by trading away Paul George, and I find that a little funny.
^ that’s incredible!!!
bruv js shooting free throws
SGA is the best player on the NBA’s best team. But he wasn’t the best all around player in the NBA this past season. That’s Jokic, by a wide margin (and the margin between Jokic and the rest has never been wider, as this year’s version of Jokic was clearly the best one). Of course, like everyone else, I knew SGA mania among the voters never broke stride and likely couldn’t be stopped. Still, I held out hope that voters would with some time to think about it, actually would, and in that regard thoughtfully evaluate the 2 players and their seasons. Silly of me.
@DXC,
IMO, the distinction between “best player” and “most valuable player” isn’t as clear as you assume. If we were all trained social scientists, we might get there, but there’s no concensus amongst sports media and fans as to how what how these terms are used.
A position like yours, which, as I read it, presupposes that individual scoring stats are the concensus criteria of “best player” seems simplistic.
You may well be right that Jokic is “better”, but, IMO, a better/best comparison with SGA needs to consider more than counting stats. Excluding team success as a criterion may fly with *some* folks, but certainly not all fans and voters. And can you really ignore “clutch” play and big game performance, defense, leadership (esp on a young unproven team), availability, and positional versatility in deciding on “best player”?
Where did I indicate that I was relying on counting stats at all? I’m sure I did to some extent, but not principally. More other factors, positional value vs baseline, etc. From the other end of the telescope it’s about who would be drafted first in a redraft of all NBA players for a single season. I have no doubt it’s Jokic, and I doubt SGA would be 2nd or 3rd.
On the semantics, your history isn’t accurate. There’s never been (until recent years anyway) an argument between “most valuable” and “best” as the standard. Best has always equaled ost valuable. The argument over the standard (and it was only really engaged in baseball) is between “most valuable (i.e., best)” and “most valuable to ONE’s team”. That one is tough, but not in the NBA or the NFL, where I never heard it taken seriously.
> he wasn’t the best all around player in the NBA this
> past season. That’s Jokic, by a wide margin (and
> the margin between Jokic and the rest has never
> been wider, as this year’s version of Jokic was
> clearly the best one).
These are strong assertions that Jokic was “best” this season (not over his career), and made without any support, as if it was a known fact, a priori.
The article above declares that SGA is the MVP. Given that SGA is the more complete player and that his team finished first, I assumed that your choice of Jokic relied on the offensive statistics where he led SGA, as that’s the common case for Jokic.
I would never have guessed that you were using “where somebody would be drafted” or “positional value versus baseline” as your guides. To each his own.
I’m not surprised. The NBA would give the MVP to someone new every season if they could. They are always desperate to make superstars.
They are also desperate to never have back to back champs ever again.
He also deserved it.
Again its never respect for the player . Just find ways to hate. Even Jokic voted for SGA …. lols
You know WHY ????? SGA plays both ways.
He is first team O and first team D led the NBA in scoring …. And led his team to best record in NBA.
To close Jokic and Nuggets out he put up
35 points to Jokic 20 …. It’s not the Most valuable to you ……
That makes 3 straight years where the MVP is not who the public wanted (should have been Jokic, Doncic, Jokic). Now we will see if 2 will soon become 3 straight years of media members admitting they were wrong.
They screwed up even more when they went Westbrook, Harden instead of Curry, Curry.
I like the selection. Maybe if Jokic played defense he could have won a 4th MVP, but he is a traffic cone on defense