Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been named the 2025 NBA Most Valuable Player, earning the award after a historic season leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to a league-best 68 wins and capturing his first scoring title.
The NBA announced the honor shortly after the Thunder eliminated Nikola Jokić’s Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. Gilgeous-Alexander received 71 of 100 first-place votes, finishing ahead of Jokić (29 first-place votes) and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who came in third. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points on 51.9% shooting, along with 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game. The only other player in NBA history to match or exceed those stats in a season was Michael Jordan in his 1987–88 and 1990–91 MVP seasons.
His performance helped OKC achieve an NBA record point differential of +12.9 per game, and their 68 wins were 18 more than Denver’s. This marked the third straight season Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30+ points on 50%+ shooting, joining legends like Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Giannis, all of whom have multiple MVPs.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the third Thunder player to win MVP, following Kevin Durant (2014) and Russell Westbrook (2017). At 26, he becomes just the 10th player to lead the league in scoring on a 60+ win team. In nine of those ten cases, the player won MVP. Already a two-time All-NBA First Team selection, he is now eligible for a record-breaking $294 million supermax extension, the highest annual contract in NBA history at $73.3 million per year.
