Shai Gilgeous-Alexander delivers emotional remarks while accepting the Michael Jordan Trophy as 2024-25 Kia NBA MVP.
• Download the NBA App
• 2024-25 NBA Awards: Complete coverage
• Kia Most Valuable Player Award: All-time winners
OKLAHOMA CITY — The most recent of the Thunder’s three MVP winners — four if you include James Harden, drafted by this franchise before winning his award in Houston — is thrilled to be part of that very exclusive group.
“Any conversation about me being with those two guys who have done amazing things,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander about being lumped with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, “is hard to put into words.”
But Gilgeous-Alexander is unapologetic about where he wants to differ from those two, and it’s about what they never achieved in Oklahoma City:
“I want to win a championship,” he said.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP partly because he had a stellar 2024-25 season. He was the league scoring champ, did so at high efficiency, ranked among the steals leaders and collected an enviable amount of blocked shots for a point guard. Those were his qualifications and they proved his impact at both ends of the floor.
But had OKC not won 68 games and comfortably captured the top seed in the West, maybe someone else would’ve taken home the MVP trophy.
Winning is what made a decisive difference between him and Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the other two finalists. Gilgeous-Alexander impacted winning more than anyone else this season. And winning a championship — OKC has a chance to do that next month — is what he says fuels him. As it should.
Gilgeous-Alexander lavished his teammates with Rolex watches, and as he spoke from a podium Wednesday at the team’s practice facility, those players wore custom T-shirts commemorating him winning the MVP award.
As he accepts the 2024-25 Kia NBA MVP award, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander explains how he feels supported by the Thunder organization.
OKC’s centerpiece rises to the top
“As a group we prioritize the right things,” he said about the Thunder. “We prioritize winning, getting better, each other’s success. Just focus on those things, how can you get better. Every day is a learning process, what can we do to win the next day, the next practice, the next game.
“When you take that mentality you get good at it. Become a better team. That mentality has changed this group.”
And Gilgeous-Alexander is the centerpiece. He couldn’t quite remember the moment when he felt he began playing at an MVP level, although the evidence points to the last two seasons, at least, when he collected MVP votes. He was runner-up last season to Jokic.
He arrived in OKC as part of the summer 2019 blockbuster trade involving Paul George going to the Clippers. At the time of the trade, George was the prize, and if anything, Gilgeous-Alexander — coming off a decent rookie season — was secondary in the package to the five No. 1 picks and two swaps.
OKC wanted to use the future draft capital to rebuild and find the next Paul George. Little did the Thunder realize that Gilgeous-Alexander would turn out to be far more valuable than the star they traded.
They gave him the ball and a chance, but it was up to him to put in the work. He became one of the league’s most creative and dangerous scorers — specializing in the mid-range, mainly — and allowed the Thunder to build around him.
SGA ripped off some incredible highlights on the way to winning the 2024-25 Kia NBA MVP.
SGA: ‘You want to play to win’
Suddenly, an eventual MVP who was cut from his junior varsity team in the eighth grade realized he was living the dream.
“I had nights where I thought I wasn’t good at basketball,” he said. “I had nights when I thought I was the best player in the world before I was. It’s been ups and downs. My mentality is to stay level through it all, and that really helped me, once I figured it out. When I was at my lowest levels of confidence, my mindset helped me attack those situations.
“I always thought that I could be a really good player because I saw what putting your head down and working and controlling what you control can do for you. I made tremendous strides but I never thought this was going to happen.”
With the MVP secured, along with a scoring title and other fringe benefits that come with that, what’s next for Gilgeous-Alexander? Other than a championship?
“Everything is left,” he said. “When I picked up a basketball when I was 9 years old, I never sat there and said ‘I want to be an All-Star.’ I sat there and said, ‘I want to win this tournament.’ Winning is everything and if you don’t win, nothing matters.
“That’s how I see competition in general. Whether you’re with your friends, in a men’s league when you’re 55, whether it’s novice basketball, you want to play to win. That’s where I m at.”
Yes, winning. Capturing the MVP represents a first step in that direction, where he can collect wins. And if he does that, if that’s the path ahead, then Gilgeous-Alexander will indeed distance himself from two other Thunder legends.
“I know Kevin, I know Russ,” he said. “They just dreamed to work hard, just as I had. And this is what can happen.”
* * *
Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.
