Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for a second straight season on Sunday, the NBA confirmed. Gilgeous-Alexander was officially named as the winner of the award in a televised announcement, hours after news of his victory leaked out by broadcaster ESPN.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who is also the reigning NBA Finals MVP after leading the Thunder to the title last year, credited his Oklahoma City teammates for helping lift him to the accolade ahead of San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama and Denver’s Nikola Jokic. “Hard work obviously, not being satisfied, but the other guys in the room really having my back, night-in, night-out,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Amazon Prime when asked for the secret to his repeat success.
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“It’s a long season, full of ups and downs, injuries, things like that. So those guys, just tying their boots up and going to war every night for me and with me — I wouldn’t have won 64 games without them. We have so much fun together. The NBA at times can seem like a business and a job, but these guys really make it seem just like fun, and what it was like when I played basketball at just a young age. I think that’s why myself and the rest of the guys have had success.”
Gilgeous-Alexander received 83 first-choice votes for MVP in the ballot of roughly 100 journalists and broadcasters who cover the NBA in North America, earning a final tally of 939 points. Jokic was second in the voting with 10 first-choice votes, while Wembanyama earned five first-choice votes to finish third.
Canadian star Gilgeous-Alexander, 27, joins an elite club of only 14 NBA players who have won back-to-back MVP honors. Nuggets star Jokic was the last to achieve the feat in 2021 and 2022, while the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo also went back-to-back in 2019 and 2020. Other players to have won consecutive MVPs include Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s second award comes after another dazzling individual season that saw him average 31.1 points and 6.6 assists per game, helping the Thunder to a 64-18 record that saw them finish on top of the Western Conference. Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP also extends a streak of overseas players to win the honor. The last American to win NBA MVP was James Harden in 2018.
The Thunder face Wembanyama and the Spurs in game one of the Western Conference finals on Monday. “Obviously a really good team — they’ve been right behind us all year, so we obviously don’t take them lightly in the slightest,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of San Antonio. “To make it this far you have to be really good. For us, it’s about us playing our brand of basketball, doing it at the highest level. As long as we can do that, we’ll live with the results.”
© 2024 AFP
