The NBA has announced that Shai Gilgeous‑Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder is the NBA’s 2025–26 regular season MVP. The award is SGA’s second in a row and third MVP in the last two years after also being named last season’s MVP and Finals MVP.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s achievement is impressive, no doubt, but many fans are questioning whether the OKC guard truly deserves back‑to‑back MVP honors.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, and Victor Wembanyama by the Numbers
When the finalists were revealed—Gilgeous‑Alexander, Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets, and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs—most expected a tightly contested race.
During the regular season, Gilgeous‑Alexander played 68 of 82 games and averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.6 assists, and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 55.3% from the field and 38.6% from three‑point range. He attempted nine free throws per game and converted 87.9%.
Jokić appeared in 65 games—the minimum required to qualify for NBA awards. The three‑time MVP averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, 10.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per contest. He shot 56.9% from the field and 38% from beyond the arc, while attempting 7.4 free throws per game and making 83.1%. He also made NBA history by becoming the first and so far only player to lead the league in average rebounds and assists.
Wembanyama played only 64 games in his third season but remained eligible for end-of-season awards because of some technicalities. He averaged 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 3.1 blocks, and 1.0 steal per game. He shot 51.2% from the field and 34.9% from three‑point range, while attempting seven free throws per outing and converting 82.7%. He also won Defensive Player of the Year, doing so as the first unanimous winner.
Each player excelled in different ways. Gilgeous‑Alexander served as OKC’s offensive engine and leading scorer, Jokić dominated through all‑around playmaking and rebounding, and Wembanyama made his greatest impact as a defensive force while still leading his team in scoring. However, from a statistical perspective, it appears that Gilgeous-Alexander is behind Jokic and Wembanyama.
MVP Voting Results
Once the winner was announced, the NBA released the voting results, which heavily favored the 2025 Finals MVP.
Gilgeous‑Alexander received 73 more first‑place votes than Jokić, while Wembanyama earned only five. The margin made clear that SGA didn’t just edge out the competition—he won by a landslide.
The Meaning of ‘Most Valuable Player’
One commonly used argument in MVP discussions is how would a team do without the MVP candidate? Conventional wisdom says a team would struggle if its best player isn’t playing. So, how do the three MVP finalists hold up in this metric?
In the 14 games Gilgeous-Alexander missed, the Thunder still got eight wins. By comparison, the Nuggets won 11 of the 17 games Jokić missed, while the Spurs won 12 of 18 without Wembanyama.
The records are very close, and an argument can be made that each of Denver, OKC, and San Antonio struggled at times without their franchise player. However, all still had winning records at the end of the day.
In the end, it’s hard to truly qualify whether a player deserves to win MVP or not, especially with so many deserving candidates. What is not up for debate is that all three finalists had compelling cases, and each would’ve deserved the top individual award of the regular season record. It just so happened that for this season, the voting went SGA’s way.
With this latest achievement, Shai Gilgeous‑Alexander joins Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Steve Nash, and Stephen Curry as guards who have won back‑to‑back NBA MVPs.
