Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been officially crowned the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the season. He finished the season second in the league in scoring, averaging 31.1 points per game, narrowly behind Luka Doncic’s 33.5 points per game. Gilgeous-Alexander also extended his remarkable streak of consecutive regular-season games with at least 20 points to an incredible 140, a record that will continue into the next season.
“He stayed true to himself,” stated Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. “I think he refined his game, his leadership, and his vision, much like any young player coming into their own.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s victory, as a Canadian, marks the eighth consecutive year that the NBA MVP has been born outside of the United States. This streak began with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, followed by Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a US and French citizen) in 2023, and Jokic again in 2024.
This year, the top four spots were dominated by international players, with Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, and Luka Doncic following Gilgeous-Alexander. Wembanyama’s achievement is particularly notable as he becomes the first Frenchman to reach this podium at just 22 years old.
Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors is the last US-born player to have been in the top three for MVP voting, finishing third in 2021 behind Jokic and Embiid. The last American to win the MVP title was James Harden, then with the Houston Rockets, in 2018.
