Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the 2025-26 NBA Most Valuable Player. Back-to-back. The announcement came Sunday night on Amazon Prime, and the result was about as expected as anything gets in an MVP race. SGA led the overall MVP conversation from wire to wire this season, his Thunder finished with the best record in the league, and the voters rewarded dominance with dominance.
The case for SGA was straightforward. Oklahoma City was the best team in the NBA, and Gilgeous-Alexander was the best player on that team. He’s an elite scorer who also makes his teammates better, operates in a system built entirely around his decision-making, and finished this season with numbers that would have won him the award in virtually any other era.
Nikola Jokic was the counterargument. Three-time MVP, the greatest offensive big in league history, still putting up numbers that make statisticians do double takes. The voters weren’t buying it in a second consecutive year.
Victor Wembanyama was the wildcard. The 7-foot-4 Frenchman won Defensive Player of the Year unanimously and helped lead the Spurs to the Western Conference Finals. His first-time finalist status made a statement about where his career is heading. MVP is coming for him. This just wasn’t the year.
SGA now joins a short list of players who have won consecutive MVPs, keeping company with names like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic. Whatever happens in the playoffs, the award is deserved. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the best basketball player on the planet at this particular moment in time.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
