NBA MVP, Finals MVP and Scoring Champ: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Joins Elite Club
He's the most valuable player. The scoring champion. And now, an NBA champion along with NBA Finals MVP.
All in one season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has entered one of the game'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 on Sunday night, beating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 to win the finals in a seven-game thriller.
He becomes the fourth player in NBA history to win MVP, Finals MVP, a scoring title and play for a champion in the same season. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it once, Michael Jordan then did it four times, and Shaquille O'Neal was the last entrant into that fraternity — until now.
"A lot of hard work, a lot of hours in the gym," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "This isn't just a win for me. This is a win for my family. This is a win for my friends. This is a win for everybody that was in my corner growing up. This is a win for the fans, the best fans in the world."
The title caps a season where the Thunder won 84 games, tied for the third most by any team in any season in NBA history. Gilgeous-Alexander finished the season with 64 games of at least 30 points. The only other players to score 30 points that many times in a season: Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, Bob McAdoo, James Harden, Jordan and Abdul-Jabbar.
It is amazing company. With due respect to those legends, Gilgeous-Alexander doesn't care. The Thunder are NBA champions. That's more than enough for him.
"Focusing on just being the best version of myself for this basketball team, for whatever it takes, for however many games it is, however many possessions is needed, however many moments," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Ultimately, I'm just trying to stay in the moment. I think that's what's gotten me here. That's what has helped me achieve the MVP award, achieve all the things I've achieved. It's helped this team win basketball games."
This was not a sneak attack up the ladder of superstardom. Gilgeous-Alexander has been climbing those rungs for years.
He's one of only two players — Giannis Antetokounmpo is the other — to average at least 30 points per game in each of the last three seasons. He led Canada to a bronze medal (over the United States, no less) at the World Cup in 2023, been an All-Star and first-team All-NBA pick for three years running, played in his first Olympics last year, and just finished a season where he posted career bests in points and assists per game.
He scored 3,172 points this season, including playoffs, the ninth-most by any player in NBA history.
Oh, and he's a champion now.
"He's getting better every year in just about everything," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "I think he's really improved as a playmaker. … And then he's an unbelievable scorer, and incredibly efficient. We lean into that. He leans into that. He's learned when teams load up on him and they overcommit, to get off it early, and I think that's reflected in the way we've played offense throughout the course of the season."
Opponents have no choice but to marvel at how Gilgeous-Alexander does what he does. He's not a high-flying artist like Jordan, not an unstoppable force of power like LeBron James, not a 3-point dazzler like Stephen Curry. He looks like he's playing at his own pace much of time, largely because defenses have few ways to slow him down or speed him up.
"Shai, he's so good," Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton — who suffered a serious lower leg injury that knocked him out of Game 7 in the first quarter — said during the series. "He's so slippery in between those gaps. He splits screens, like, I don't know how he's doing that. … He's a really tough cover."
Gilgeous-Alexander is the face of basketball in Oklahoma City, is rapidly becoming one of the faces of the NBA — his jersey is now one of the highest-selling — and it's no secret that he is the icon for fans in Canada now. It used to be Steve Nash, the first Canadian to win NBA MVP.
Now, Nash has help.
"You can only imagine and get excited about all the kids around the world, but in particular Canadians that will be affected so positively, whether they're basketball players or not, by the way he carries himself, by the way he executes and commits to his profession," Nash said. "It's remarkable and he's an amazing example for everybody out there, not just kids."
There's no question Nash had some impact on Gilgeous-Alexander's rise in the game. Another great who did: Kobe Bryant.
There are parallels: similar body types, even similar ways they answer questions. Bryant famously said "job's not finished" when asked about his Lakers getting within two wins of a title one year; Gilgeous-Alexander had a similar moment after the Thunder got to three wins in this series, saying "we haven't done anything."
They have now.
"He is probably my favorite player of all time," Gilgeous-Alexander said of Bryant. "Never got the chance to meet him. With me, with kids all across the world, his influence has gone through the roof. He'll be remembered forever because of the competitor and the basketball player he was. Yeah, I'm hopefully somewhere close to that as a basketball player one day."
He's not there yet.
But Gilgeous-Alexander got one day closer Sunday, when he reached basketball's mountaintop for the first time.
"It means everything," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We rose to the moment. And here we are."
Reporting by The Associated Press.
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
recommended
Get more from National Basketball Association Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jaylen Brown Has Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
ESPN is reporting that Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Wednesday morning. The surgery was described as 'minimally invasive', and it is expected that he will be available to fully participate in training camp. ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reported in April that Brown had received pain injections for the knee starting in March, and she later reported in May that he finished the season with a partially torn right meniscus. Advertisement Brown averaged 22.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.5 assists during the 2024-25 regular season. Playing through the injury in the playoffs he had 22.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 3.9 assists. Browns recovery is of increased importance due to the Achilles tendon rupture sustained by teammate Jayson Tatum. Tatum's injury is expected to keep him out of the Celtics' lineup for at least most of the 2025-26 season. More from
USA Today
37 minutes ago
- USA Today
Player grades: Thunder win NBA championship with 103-91 Game 7 win over Pacers
OKLAHOMA CITY — Don't expect OKC to go to sleep anytime soon. For the first time since their 2008 relocation, the Oklahoma City Thunder have won an NBA championship. The fanbase finally reached the mountaintop after decades of coming up just short. The Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in a 103-91 Game 7 win. It was the grand conclusion of an exciting 2025 NBA Finals that went the distance. Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Thunder had a slow start. Blame it on Game 7 nerves. The offense couldn't get going. Tyrese Haliburton nailed his first three looks from the outside. Everything went in the Pacers' favor. And then on a turnover, Haliburton went down. He needed to be helped off the court. The Pacers' worst nightmare came to life. Playing with a calf strain, everybody's first thought went to a possible torn Achilles. While Indiana didn't confirm the injury, he was ruled out the rest of the way after just seven minutes. That shattered any optimism for the Pacers. The Thunder finished the first quarter with a 25-22 lead. But credit Indiana, it kept hanging around. That's what they've done all playoffs. They scored 26 points in the second frame to make OKC sweat nerves. Andrew Nembhard nailed a stepback 3-pointer in the final seconds. The Pacers had a 48-47 halftime lead. Frustration was the mood for most Thunder fans at the break. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stepped up, but Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren struggled. It felt similar to Game 1. The Thunder should've been up by a lot of points at the break. Not down by one. Especially with Haliburton out. But the Pacers wouldn't go away as the rest of the roster stepped up in their franchise player's absence. Then the Thunder finally found their stride out of the break. Without their lead ball-handler, the league's best defense created plenty of turnovers. A bunch of steal-and-score sequences led to a signature avalanche run. The Thunder scored 34 points in the third frame to go up by double-digit points. TJ McConnell was Indiana's only source of buckets. He got by Cason Wallace and others pretty easily. But once the Thunder shut him down, they didn't have much else. The Thunder had an 81-68 lead after the third quarter. Nobody wanted to say it aloud, but everybody thought it. The Thunder were 12 minutes away from glory. All they needed to do was stiff-arm the Pacers long enough. Holmgren pushed OKC's lead to a game-high 90-68 with a little under eight minutes left. Considering just how difficult points came for the Pacers, it would've taken a miracle for them to mount one last comeback. The Thunder had a few scares as Indiana cut it to as little as 10 points, but the final minutes turned into a free-throw battle that delayed the inevitable. The Thunder shot 40% from the field and went 11-of-40 (27.5%) from 3. They shot 22-of-31 on free throws. They had 20 assists on 35 baskets. Five Thunder players scored double-digit points. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 29 points and 12 assists. He was named the NBA Finals MVP. Williams finished with 20 points on 20 shot attempts. Holmgren had 18 points, eight rebounds and five blocks. Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace each scored 10 points off the bench. Meanwhile, the Pacers shot 41% from the field and went 11-of-28 (39.3%) from 3. They shot 22-of-29 on free throws. They had 17 assists on 29 baskets. Four Pacers players scored double-digit points. Bennedict Mathurin led the way with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Pascal Siakam had 16 points and four rebounds. Nembhard finished with 15 points and six assists. McConnell scored 16 points. Haliburton had nine points before he was injured. The Thunder finally did it. They won an NBA championship. And cap off one of the greatest seasons ever. From 68 wins to the best point differential ever, this season will go down in league history as one of the most dominant campaigns seen. Let's look at Thunder player grades: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: A Matched up against Aaron Nesmith, Gilgeous-Alexander went for the kill. He finally swished in one of his stepback 3-pointers. The timely bucket set the tone for the rest of the fourth quarter that saw the Thunder celebrate their first championship. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 29 points on 8-of-27 shooting, 12 assists and five rebounds. He shot 2-of-12 from 3 and went 11-of-12 on free throws. He also had two blocks and a steal. Not the prettiest performance, but Gilgeous-Alexander gutted out a Game 7 NBA Finals win. It doesn't get higher stakes than that. The Pacers looked shell-shocked once Haliburton went down. That showed in their defense against the MVP winner. And when he didn't, Gilgeous-Alexander leveraged his gravity to help his teammates. Plenty of kick-out baskets resulted in good looks from the outside. That's how you make the opponent rethink their defensive strategies. Like he's done all year, Gilgeous-Alexander drove to the basket and drew contact. He had a busy night at the free-throw line because of it. Only fitting he did that once again at the biggest game of his life. Cry about it, NBA Twitter users. Gilgeous-Alexander cemented his 2024-25 season as one of the greatest ever. An NBA Finals MVP was the cherry on top. Jalen Williams: C-plus Receiving a pass from Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams coldly knocked down a catch-and-look attempt that sent the OKC crowd into a frenzy. That put the Thunder over 20 points and just roughly eight minutes away from their ultimate dream. Williams finished with 20 points on 7-of-20 shooting, four rebounds and four assists. He shot 2-of-7 from 3 and went 4-of-6 on free throws. He also had two steals. Not the most efficient outing, but Williams did enough to secure a championship. After a quiet first half, the 24-year-old stepped it up in the second half with some transition buckets to get into a groove. A 15-point second half made any first-half criticisms wash away. With the Pacers wounded, the Thunder went all gas in the second half to create a double-digit lead. Williams helped with that with drives to the basket and mid-range jumpers he feathered in. Chet Holmgren: B-plus Swatting away McConnell's attempt, the Thunder had had enough of Indiana's pesky bench player. He kept the Pacers within arm's reach of the scoreboard with a flurry of buckets. Holmgren's rejection was met with a sigh of relief by the OKC crowd. Holmgren finished with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting, eight rebounds and five blocks. He shot 1-of-2 from 3 and went 5-of-8 on free throws. After a bad first half, it looked like Holmgren would fail to leave his scoring mark on the NBA Finals. A shame too, considering what he's done in the playoffs. But a 15-point second half quickly flipped that narrative. The Pacers couldn't contain the seven-footer. A catch-and-shoot corner attempt must've felt like lifting a billion pounds off his shoulders. He's struggled from the outside all series and entered Game 7 shooting below 12% from 3. That was a quick boost of confidence that snowballed over for the rest of the game. This is exactly what the Thunder needed from Holmgren. He bounced back from a forgettable Game 6 and cemented himself as an OKC legend. This ring means a little more for the 23-year-old. Considering the rollercoaster of a season he had from a hip fracture that cost him three months to being a key piece to a title winner. Alex Caruso: B After his postgame interview, Caruso met with Daigneault behind the curtains and gave him a huge bear hug. Both have been tied to the hip with their starts on the G League's OKC Blue. Establishing himself as one of the league's best defenders in Los Angeles and Chicago, the 31-year-old's first year back at OKC finished with a championship. Caruso finished with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting, three rebounds and three steals. He shot 2-of-5 from 3. Nobody feeds off the crowd's energy more than Caruso. He's talked about being too pumped up at times in the playoffs. To the point he needs to play calmer music to bring him back down. You can only imagine what he felt for this Game 7. The Thunder trusted Caruso to complement the traditional four starters. He might've come off the bench, but he played the fourth-most Game 7 minutes for a reason. He started the second half in place of Hartenstein and the move paid off as they ran away in that frame. Isaiah Hartenstein: A Turns out, the double-big lineup is the one that won the Thunder a championship. After abandoning it for a more traditional look with Cason Wallace, OKC changed it mid-way through the series. The move paid off with a championship. Hartenstein finished with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting, nine rebounds and four assists. He shot 1-of-3 on free throws. He also had a steal. This was the best Hartenstein has looked in the NBA Finals. He was used more often as a roller to the basket. His size and rebounding helped when the offense couldn't get out of the mud. The playmaking also shone in the biggest game of his life. The Thunder went two-for-two from last year's offseason acquisitions. Caruso gets all the love, but Hartenstein has been a steady presence who enjoyed a career season. Fair to say his decision to leave New York for OKC paid off. Highlights:
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NBA Finals: How the Thunder's battle cry helped OKC become NBA champions — and one of the greatest teams of all time
"Be where your feet are." It is a battle cry the Oklahoma City Thunder adopted to help them stay in the present moment. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault first shared it with his team on Feb. 7, 2023, when they were facing the Los Angeles Lakers, whose LeBron James was set to break the NBA's scoring record over the course of the game. Daigneault did not want his players to get lost in anything but competing in the game itself. Advertisement "The idea behind it was there's going to be so much going on in the arena during LeBron's moment that you have to be where your feet are," said Oklahoma City All-Star forward Jalen Williams between Games 3 and 4 of the 2025 NBA Finals. "You have to lock in and stay present in the moment. From there, we just ran with it. There's been so many outside factors and a lot of noise that have gone into my last three years. ... It became a little team mantra. It's just something to remind us how far we've come. The more we can get back to zero, the better we'll be." Oh, how far they have come. For many, that night was their first nationally televised glimpse of the young Thunder, who had spent the previous two seasons tanking. Those years yielded a foundation of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander via trade and both Williams and Chet Holmgren in the draft. Holmgren was injured back then in L.A., but Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams combined for 55 points in a narrow victory that spoiled James' celebratory night. Advertisement We figured then it was the start of something. Nobody could have predicted that night was the birth of one of the greatest teams in NBA history, a budding dynasty, but that is precisely what happened. Two short years later, the Thunder's feet took them to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, where on Sunday they beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91, clinching the franchise's first championship in its OKC era. I can almost hear you wondering, Really, this is one of the greatest teams ever? And the answer is yes, absolutely. These Thunder are one of seven teams in league history to win 68 games during the regular season and the first since the Golden State Warriors won an NBA-record 73 games in the 2015-16 season. Only these Thunder won the title. Oklahoma City also owns the second-best net rating (+12.8) in league history, trailing only Michael Jordan's 72-win Chicago Bulls from 1995-96. The Bulls are widely considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history, along with the 2016-17 Warriors, 1985-86 Boston Celtics, 1986-87 Los Angeles Lakers and others. Advertisement Point is: The Thunder belong among them now. How did they get here? By being where their feet are. The Thunder are where their feet are ... as NBA champions. (Photo by) (Getty Images) "I think it's attacking every day, attacking every rep, attacking every possession and trying to make that a habit, and understanding the compounding nature of that and impact of that when you do that," said Daigneault, a 40-year-old in his first NBA head-coaching gig. "These are guys that have seen success taking that approach. When you do something, then you find success doing it, it reinforces it, breeds commitment. The guys have done a great job of building that muscle over a long period of time now." "It's almost like a default," said Gilgeous-Alexander, who has turned himself into an MVP in the process. Advertisement The Thunder's success has followed a linear progression — from a 24-win team in 2021-22 to a 40-win play-in team a year later, the same season they spoiled James' big night, to a 57-win No. 1 seed in 2023-24 and finally to the 68-win juggernaut they were this season. Their internal development cannot be denied. "When you stack the days, stack the possessions, stack the games, that's going to take you as far as you're capable of in that moment," said Daigneault. "We're obviously further now than we were then. We maxed out what we were capable of at those times. I think that's the value of that type of approach." It should give hope to every team out there. All it took was three seasons of leaning into a growth mindset to transform from one of the NBA's worst teams, a team that was not even trying to win, to a champion. Of course, it is easier said than done. The Thunder identified Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged 10.8 points per game as a rookie on the Los Angeles Clippers, as a future star, and not even they could have imagined he would have reached this level. They drafted Williams and Holmgren, a pair of All-Star-caliber complements, on the same night in 2022. They boast one of the smartest general managers in all of basketball, Sam Presti, who stockpiled draft picks and hit on them more often than not, building one of the deepest rosters in the league. And they targeted two of the game's best role players, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, this past offseason, hoping they were the final pieces to a championship puzzle. Advertisement And it all worked. This is not always how development unfolds. You can have a motto — "be where your feet are" — but you need everyone to buy into it. You need everyone to adopt it. You need everyone to live by it, and that is not always easy, either. The players credit their coach. The coach credits his players. Regardless, they all needed reminding of their mantra before Game 7, as none of them but Caruso had been in this spot, hours from an NBA championship. So Daigneault delivered the message once again. All the work they had done, the hours they put in, the moments they seized, it prepared them for this one. "I think that's the deal," said Daigneault. "You want to be prepared. You certainly want to learn the lessons, get the game plan into the game, but not at the expense of aggressiveness, confidence, instincts. That has been a strength of ours this season. We certainly have to lean on that. We have to understand the work is done, and we have to trust the work. The muscle is built. We have to flex that muscle." So, when the pressure reached its apex, when they needed most to be present, when the score was deadlocked, 56-56, midway through Game 7's third quarter, they flexed. They called on every possession they stacked, every rep they attacked. At that very moment, SGA, Holmgren and Williams connected on consecutive 3-pointers, turning a tied game into a comfortable advantage. From there, the team relied on its defense — the muscle it had worked so hard to build over time — to carry it to the championship. Advertisement "You've got to have those themes," Daigneault said of his team's mantra. "This team responds well to those things. If you put the right thing in front of them, they really take to it. I think that's the right way to approach competition. But these guys bring it to life with the way they play. You can talk about it all you want, but it comes down to how you perform. These guys perform like competitive monsters." When the moment called for it, they were present as themselves, calloused as champions. "Winning is what's remembered," added Holmgren. "It's what's immortal. I'm just so happy we were able to do it. There was so much hard work that a lot of people don't see that went into this. Years of hard work for everybody that led to this. It makes it all worthwhile. It makes it all ... it's just a great feeling." Be where your feet are. On the NBA mountaintop.
