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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander caps stellar season as NBA Finals MVP

AP photo by Julio Cortez / Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander holds his son while celebrating the team's Game 7 victory against the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA championship Sunday night. Gilgeous-Alexander, the league MVP based on his regular-season performance, was also voted NBA Finals MVP. AP photo by Julio Cortez / Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander holds his son while celebrating the team's Game 7 victory against the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA championship Sunday night. Gilgeous-Alexander, the league MVP based on his regular-season performance, was also voted NBA Finals MVP.

By TIM REYNOLDS / The Associated Press June 22, 2025 6 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY — He’s the most valuable player of the 2024-25 regular season. The league scoring champion. And now, an NBA champion along with NBA Finals MVP.

All in one year.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has entered one of his sport’s most elite clubs.

The 26-year-old Canadian is atop the basketball world now in almost every way imaginable. Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder captured the NBA title Sunday night, beating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 to win a thrilling best-of-seven series that went the distance.

SGA, a former prep standout at Chattanooga’s Hamilton Heights Christian Academy, is the fourth player to win NBA MVP, NBA Finals MVP, a scoring title and the league championship in the same season. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it in 1971 with the Milwaukee Bucks, Michael Jordan did it four times with his Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s, and Shaquille O’Neal a quarter-century ago with the Los Angeles Lakers was the last entrant into that exclusive fraternity — until now.