Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, also known as SGA, has been crowned as the best player (MVP) of the NBA of the last regular season. The 26 -year -old Canadian base of the Oklahoma City Thunder has broken the Serbio Nikola Jokić twice in the last week. First, to move on to the final of the West Conference. Now, it has transpired that SGA has destroyed Jokić as MVP, waiting for the vote result to become official.
What was already certain is that it was going to be something unprecedented in the NBA. The Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) took the titles of 2019 and 2020; Jokić (Denver Nuggets), conquered those of 2021, 2022 and 2024, and together with the Canadian and the Serbian, this year’s third finalist was Antetokounmpo.
The leader of the Oklahoma City Thunder achieved an average of 32.7 points per game, which made him the best scorer of the NBA in the season, ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo (30,4) and Jokić himself (29.8). It was also the maximum absolute scorer, with 2,484 points, in this case with more than 400 advantage over the Serbian, which has lost more than double matches than the Canadian. Gilgeous-Alexander adds 6.4 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game, clearly below the Serbian, which surpasses, however, in the cappitles of plugs, ball robberies and ball losses.
Jokić won the title of Best Player (MVP) of the NBA could have been chosen again this year. He closed the season with a triple double on average, that is, more than 10 points, rebounds and assists per game, something they had only achieved in the history of NBA Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson. In addition, in the three categories it is among the first three of the season. He achieved an unusual double triple of 30 points, 20 rebounds and 20 assists a few weeks ago. “If the MVP does not win, it is the best season of all time not winning the MVP,” said Nuggets interim coach David Adelman, about his player.
Even so, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been imposed on the vote of the panel to choose the best of the year, according to a few hours before the award is official.
In favor of SGA they have played two main factors. The first, which the Canadian player has turned the Thunder into the best team of the season. The second, the novelty. To this is added a more explosive and colorful game than that of Jokić, whose efficiency sometimes does not go hand in hand with the show.
The merit of SGA as director of the Oklahoma City team is indisputable. Without great stars around them, with two young people like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren as the main squires, the Thunder have closed the league with 68 wins and 14 losses, with an advantage of 16 wins over the seconds of the hard West Conference. Eastern teams against teams resulted in a single defeat. In addition, the Thunder have achieved in the 82 games of the League an average differential of 12.9 points in their favor, the largest in the history of the NBA, exceeding a record that dated from the beginning of the 1970s.
In the playoffs it is also the decisive figure. His team swept the Grizzlies in the first round and won. This Tuesday, in the first match of the Western Conference final, against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he won 31 points in the victory of his team.
SGA was chosen in the 11th position of the draft of 2018 by the Charlotte Hornets and immediately transferred to Los Angeles Clippers in a year in which the NBA scouts were not very close. The Canadian was selected behind eight players who have never played an All Star. After debuting in the Clippers in the 2018-2019 season, this is the sixth course of the Hamilton Base (Ontario) with the Oklahoma City Thunder. In the last three leagues he has averaged more than 30 points per game, but it is in which he has achieved his best numbers.
Jokić, while LeBron James and Wilt Chamberlain, four times MVP. Above them are only Michael Jordan and Bill Russell, with five titles each, and, at the top, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with six. Antetokounmpo has no real options in front of its two rivals.
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