Feb. 21, 2026, 12:35 p.m. CT
Sometimes reality can slap your dreams. The Oklahoma City Thunder had a taste of that on Thursday. While fans expected Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to return from his five-game absence with his abdominal strain after the NBA All-Star break ala Superman, they received the opposite.
Gilgeous-Alexander will miss at least four more games with the injury. He’s set to be re-evaluated in about a week. Along with Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell remaining out, that puts the Thunder in a difficult spot of playing a gauntlet of East contenders without a true ball-handler.
More importantly, though, the MVP race got a little interesting. For the longest, it felt like Gilgeous-Alexander would run away with the prestigious award back-to-back years. To the point that the real question was if he’d win it unanimously. Now, this abdominal strain creaks open the door a little for someone else.
Gilgeous-Alexander has only played in 49 of OKC’s 57 games. And considering he’ll miss at least three more, that’ll put his games missed total at 11 — seven away from disqualification. There’s no real worry that he will flirt with missing out on the NBA’s 65-game minimum rule to be award eligible, but each missed game lets someone else get some of the national spotlight.
How much will Gilgeous-Alexander’s chase for individual greatness affect his return? After all, his idol Kobe Bryant only won one MVP award. Two would put him in even rarer company. But according to Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, not much — if any.
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“I’m going to lay off the big picture thing. There are so many other people who are thinking about these things a lot. I’m thinking about the Thunder. I’m thinking about my kids. That’s really what I’m thinking about,” Daigneault said. “So I don’t know. I’m not going to get in on that. But in terms of the decisions, we’re always going to prioritize the well-being of our players and everybody else.”
That’s probably the safe approach to take. I will say, though, it helps the Thunder that Gilgeous-Alexander has so much cushion in both the eligibility threshold and MVP odds that makes missing another week feel at least stomachable. Before this, he’s been one of the NBA’s most durable superstars — knock on wood.
Gilgeous-Alexander remains the heavy betting favorite. Albeit he lost some of his margin for error. But the rest of the MVP field is equally battered and bruised. Candidates like Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama and Luka Doncic are one tweak away from being disqualified.
You never want to see Gilgeous-Alexander miss time, but the upside of his injury is that it happened near the NBA All-Star break. So he was able to steal a week’s worth of rest without missing any games. It’s looking like that might be the fail-safe that OKC will lean on for him to win a second consecutive MVP trophy.
“Guys understand the 65-game thing. Obviously, everybody is aware. We want all of our players to qualify for that, not because of the awards, but because we want to prioritize availability,” Daigneault said. “But when guys have stuff going on, we’re always cautious and we’re always as conservative as we can be. That’s the best thing for our team and, more importantly, for their individual careers.”