Former Kentucky men’s basketball guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the 2025 NBA MVP Award, becoming the first former Kentucky Wildcat to do so.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who is in his sixth season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, beat out Denver Nuggets big man and reigning MVP Nikola Jokić for the award, receiving 71 out of 100 first place votes.
Jokić finished second in the voting while Milwaukee Bucks big man Giannis Antetokounmpo finished in third. SGA also became the second Canadian player to win the award, following in the footsteps of Steve Nash who won it twice in 2005 and 2006.
SGA spent one year with the Cats during the 2017-18 season and was the lowest ranked recruit in Kentucky’s 2017 freshman class, however he averaged 14.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists during his time in blue and white.
After a strong one-and-done season, he was drafted 11th overall to the Charlotte Hornets in the 2018 NBA Draft. That same day, he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers before getting shipped off to Oklahoma City in 2019.
Written in the blueprints of SGA’s MVP season was a career-high regular season average of 32.7 points, five rebounds and 6.4 assists per game, also accompanied by a 51.9% field-goal percentage and a 37.5% three-point percentage.
Gilgeous-Alexander also tallied a league-high 49 30-plus point performances this season, accounting for 64.5% of the 76 regular season games that he played in. With that, SGA has also recorded 72 consecutive 20-plus point games, the fourth longest streak in NBA history.
Oklahoma City set a franchise record for the most single-season wins this year, finishing the regular season with a 68-14 record and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference. Oklahoma City swept Ja Morant and the No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies in the first round.
The Thunder then avenged Jokić and the No. 4 Denver Nuggets in a seven-game series in round two. SGA scored a game-high 35 points in that series-deciding game seven.
Now, already holding a 2-0 lead, the Thunder will seek to beat Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals and reach the NBA Finals for the second time since relocating from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008. The last time the Thunder reached the NBA Finals was in 2012 when they lost to LeBron James and the Miami Heat in five games.
The now confirmed MVP will be back in action on Saturday, May 24 at 8:30 p.m. ET when the Thunder look to gain a massive 3-0 series lead against Minnesota. That game can be viewed on ABC.
