Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been named the 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player and awarded the Michael Jordan Trophy.
This is the first time Shai has won the MVP award. He came close in the past, finishing second last season and fifth in the 2022-23 season. He is now the second Canadian player to win this award after Steve Nash, who won it twice in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Shai also becomes the third player from the Thunder to receive this honor, following Kevin Durant in 2013-14 and Russell Westbrook in 2016-17.
During the 2024-25 regular season, Shai had an outstanding performance. He averaged 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.72 steals, and 1.01 blocks per game over 76 games. These stats are all career bests for him in points, assists, and blocks.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has been in the NBA for seven years, had an amazing season and won the NBA scoring title for the first time. He became the first player since James Harden in the 2018-19 season to lead the league in games with at least 20, 30, 40, and 50 points. He scored 20 or more points in 75 games, 30 or more in 49 games, 40 or more in 13 games, and had four games with 50 or more points.
The only time he scored fewer than 20 points in the regular season was against the San Antonio Spurs on October 30, 2024, when he scored 18. After that, he scored at least 20 points in the next 72 games, which is the longest streak in a single season since the 1963-64 season when legends Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson had longer streaks.
Gilgeous-Alexander is 6-foot-6 and had some of the best shooting numbers of his career. He shot 51.9% from the field, 37.5% from three-point range, and 89.8% from the free throw line, which was the sixth-best in the NBA. He made the most free throws in the league (601) and hit a personal-best 163 three-pointers—much more than his previous record of 95 threes from last season.
He also joined basketball legend Michael Jordan as the only two players in NBA history to average at least 32 points and 6 assists per game while shooting over 50% from the field in a season. Jordan achieved this in both the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.
On defense, Gilgeous-Alexander was the only player in the league to average at least 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. He ranked fifth in steals per game and helped his team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, become the best defensive team in the NBA with a rating of 106.6.
This season, Gilgeous-Alexander was an NBA All-Star for the third time in a row. He was also named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Month three times—in October/November, December, and March—and was the Player of the Week twice. He was included in the All-Tournament Team for the Emirates NBA Cup, where the Thunder finished second.
Thanks to his incredible play, the Thunder ended the regular season with a 68-14 record, the best in the NBA and tied for the sixth-best single-season record in league history. They also broke a league record by outscoring their opponents by an average of 12.9 points per game.
The 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award was decided by a global media panel of 100 voters. The results were counted by the independent firm Ernst & Young LLP.