Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, and Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic are the two favourites to win the NBA MVP award this season.
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, and Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic are the two favourites to win the NBA MVP award this season.
In one five-week span, the Thunder superstar had four games of 50 or more points, one of the most blistering stretches of NBA scoring in recent years.
The NBA will announce the 2024-25 most valuable player at 7 p.m. ET and the 26-year-old is the favourite to earn the honour.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who has his Oklahoma City Thunder team within three wins of making the NBA Final, would be the second Canadian (Steve Nash: 2004-05, 2005-06) to win the award.
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Denver鈥檚 Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee鈥檚 Giannis Antetokounmpo are the other finalists in balloting among 100 media representatives who regular cover the league.
Gilgeous-Alexander, a six-foot-six point guard, led the NBA in scoring in 2024-25, averaging 32.7 points per game, and led the Thunder to a league-best 68-14 regular season record. He was runner-up in MVP voting last season.
Jokic, a three-time winner of the MVP award, averaged 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists for the Nuggets this season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is at the heart of a great Thunder team but Denver Nugget superstar is聽the best player in the world.
Gilgeous-Alexander had 31 points, nine assists and five rebounds as Oklahoma City crushed Minnesota 114-88 in the first game of the Western Conference final on Tuesday night.
And even though MVP votes had to be cast before even the first playoff games were played last month, his play Tuesday opened more eyes.
鈥淪hai Gilgeous-Alexander showed why he鈥檚 the MVP,鈥 ex-Denver coach Michael Malone said while working for ESPN on the American broadcast.
鈥淗e took over in the second half. Did so in a very efficient manner and put the team on his back when they needed him to do so.鈥
Doug Smith is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on
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